The Sandwich Generation… You’ve heard the phrase no doubt… and it is exactly how it sounds…. When we are squeezed between two very demanding groups of people – namely our parent(s) on the bottom, and our kids on top of us, it is hard to really find our full expression. We tend to sort of squash out in the middle – not much excitement there. We feel like filler material – and although we might be what gives flavor to the sandwich – we may never get the credit for it.
No wonder we feel exhausted.
Getting by seems to be the name of the game. We decide it is better to wait until____________ (fill in the blank.)
So we constantly put ourselves last.
Yet, life passes us by while we sit squashed between our whole wheat or rye – or even good ‘ol Wonder Bread!
We love our “carbohydrate loads” – but we can also see that there is much more to life than what we can access. We know that part of the problem is that we feel stuck. And it is certainly partly the circumstances around us. But we also sense that there is something we can do about it, and we are not quite sure what it is.
Then we turn to feeling guilty, because we feel we really should be doing more than we are, and our energy immediately get weighed down even more.
I find my own life often sandwiched between demands of many people. It may not be parents and kids, but demands are all around me all the time demanding my attention. My ability to move through all these demands depends on my ability to chart my course with confidence.
Confidence that I am enough. Confidence that I do enough.
And this confidence is easily eroded; in fact we live in a culture that constantly sends us messages that we are not enough.
This confidence is a learned practice. Nobody knows this from birth. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I have some great techniques that help. If you are curious, send me an e-mail: marie@marietrout.com
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