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Author: Hasan
The Silent Struggle: When Work-Life Balance Is a Luxury
We often hear about the importance of work-life balance, a mantra repeated by life coaches, influencers, and well-meaning friends. It’s painted as the golden key to happiness—a perfect equilibrium where work and personal life coexist in harmony. But for many, this concept is nothing more than a distant dream, a luxury they simply cannot afford.
Meet Sarah, a single mother of two. Every day, she wakes up before the sun, her body aching from the few hours of sleep she managed to steal the night before. She works two jobs, neither of which offers benefits, let alone a livable wage. Her mornings are a whirlwind of packing lunches, getting the kids ready for school, and rushing out the door to catch the first bus that will take her to her cleaning job. There’s no time for breakfast; she needs those extra ten minutes to make sure her children have something to eat.
Sarah’s workday is long and grueling. She scrubs floors, cleans bathrooms, and empties trash cans in office buildings where she sees others living the life she dreams of—people who talk about their weekend getaways, yoga classes, and the latest self-help book on work-life balance. When the cleaning shift ends, she heads to her second job as a cashier at a grocery store. The hours stretch on, and by the time she gets home, it’s well past dinner time. She’s exhausted, her feet hurt, and her back feels like it might break, but she can’t rest yet. There are homework assignments to help with, laundry to fold, and bills to figure out how to pay.
For Sarah, the concept of work-life balance feels like a cruel joke. How can she balance anything when she’s constantly on the edge of breaking? The reality is that she doesn’t have the luxury of balance. Every waking moment is dedicated to survival, to keeping a roof over her children’s heads and food on the table. Her personal life—the part where she’s supposed to rest, recharge, and find joy—has been sacrificed at the altar of necessity.
And yet, Sarah keeps going. She keeps going because she has no other choice. Quitting isn’t an option when you’re the only one holding everything together. But the toll it takes is immense. The fatigue becomes chronic, the stress unrelenting. The rare moments of joy—her children’s laughter, a hug at the end of a long day—are fleeting and often overshadowed by the weight of everything she must carry.
There are millions of people like Sarah. People who work tirelessly, who sacrifice their health and happiness because the world demands it of them. They are the invisible ones, the ones who aren’t featured in wellness magazines or celebrated in corporate seminars. They don’t have the time or the means to pursue balance because they’re too busy just trying to survive.
So the next time we talk about work-life balance, let’s remember that for many, it’s not a matter of making better choices or prioritizing differently. It’s a matter of survival. Let’s not forget the Sarahs of the world who carry an unimaginable burden every day. Instead of offering advice on balance, maybe we should be asking how we can lighten their load, how we can create a world where no one has to choose between survival and happiness.
Because in the end, balance shouldn’t be a luxury—it should be a right.
And until it is, let’s show compassion and understanding to those who are doing everything they can just to make it through another day.
The Jungle of Life
I couldn’t sleep again because of immense back pain combined with arthritis in a few key joints. Resorted to taking ibuprofen syrup. I’ve had ulcers before, one of the many side effects of ibuprofen. Finally, I grabbed my phone to jot this out.
https://nonakedwalls.co.uk/artwork/the-magic-of-spring-hampshire-bluebells-art/ While in bed, wide awake in pain, I had this thought going in my head… Trees!
How vulnerable are they when they first sprout? The smallest things can kill them. Animals ruthlessly step on them. Birds peck their leaves off. Insects eat them alive. Yet! They take root. They weather the storm, breathe the Oxygen & CO2, and grow back even stronger.
https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Dappled-Light/1541225/9501691/view Their leaves become bitter to their predators. Some even put out thorns, others later shed their thorns as they become taller and stronger, providing shade and shelter to those that once threatened their very existence.
These resilient and wise beings, then develop the ability to give a head start to others. Not just ones of their own kind, but those that might appear far different. Almost foreign.
The lessons that these trees learn during their long painful journeys of perseverance, help the newcomers avoid dangers and red flags. The new members of this diverse jungle family might get a signal from the wise elderly trees to put out their thorns early. Or to make themselves bitter to the taste early on.
https://rtcsalesvs.live/product_details/40877302.html However, many trees can’t survive on their own. Some of them could be carrying generational damage. Others, by design, are sweet and vulnerable. These weaklings are only able to grow amongst the thorny bitter canopy until they can put out fruit for the right animals, birds & insects.
The Jungle has a beautiful collective wisdom. The weaklings attract insects, birds and animals that have diverse appetites. Appetites that include not only the weaklings’ fruits as a first course, but weeds & harmful insects that if left unchecked, can corrupt their entire canopy.
Certain trees are plain weird to the sight. Even in their first few years, they try to rise far above the rest of the canopy. These tall yet super flexible freaks of nature, sticking their heads out, live at a level higher and different than the others. They don’t even breathe the same air. Their height allows them to breathe in Nitrogen. Vital to the long term well-being of the rather down to earth members of their tribe. Malnutrition is no joke.
Everyone in the great diversity of the jungle, has their own place. They might appear completely unrelated to each other, but they’re all connected. No one is useless. Everyone has a purpose. Even if we might not have discovered it yet.
The weaklings with their short roots can’t weather the violent storms, so the down to earth shrubby trees help them by softening the blows. The mighty wise trees with deep widespread strong roots, form the backbone of the underground communications system. Carrying important messages to canopies that’d otherwise be left dumb, deaf & blind.
https://www.reddit.com/r/painting/comments/17trlka/just_want_to_share_with_all_of_you_one_of_my/ What great lessons we have to learn in Trees!
Pain replaced with more pain!
My regular pain seems to have gone away. However it left me with this back pain.Its been intense. Almost about to faint.
It hurts when I turn in bed. That tells a lot. I’m trying to dissect it through… Hurts more when I bend forwards rather than backwards.
Is this related to RA pain, I wonder? Or is it because I’m losing visceral fat on the inside, causing my bones to rearrange?
May 14 2024 I woke up at 0300 with debilitating pain in my hips and lower back. It was so hard getting out of bed. I had to contort my body in weird ways just to stand.
I think the pain caused indigestion, that’s something that hasn’t happened much since I got on the keto diet for the most part.
The next 3 to 4 hours were just horrible. Then I tried messaging the area around the affected bones with oil. Idk if it helped at the time.
I’ve been trying to figure out the cause for this new pain. I started getting a bit of pain months ago but I didn’t make much of it. Not the kind to fuss about “minor issues”. 😌
Even until a few weeks ago as it got far worse, I just chalked it up to arthritis inflammation, scary and strange as it was for my arthritis to supposedly have hit my lower back now, I just thought it was a logical next step in the progression of my disease.
But as the weeks passed and the pain didn’t go away, in fact it only became sharper and I noticed it was different in nature than the usual pain attacks I get, it slowly came to the realization that it’s something else.
Areas of pain I asked friends, started reading about it online, tried different exercises, it only aggravated it further. Until I connected the dots. Is it from sitting with bad posture for hours on end working on the computer? I know it’s been putting a lot of pressure on my lower back and hips.
crab position
So after yet another horrific morning, I tried to do some exercise. I’d squat down then do a crab and push my hip upwards. Trying to figure out the counter move to reserve the bones into position in case they’ve “slipped”. Another thing I did differently was that I put a cushion between my knees and went to sleep in a more relaxed pose for my back.
I woke up 3 hours later with reduced pain and it receded to my right hip, I was able to get out of bed much better.
Here’s the links to the videos that helped me the most!
Biking and 1st keto week
It’s about a week since I’ve started the keto diet. There has been pain in my hip joint for the past 03 days and that’s just not something I want to talk about. But believe me that things are getting better.
A game changer was the fact that I got myself out of the house to start biking. It was incredibly time consuming, and depressing. With me panting after every 10 minutes of cycling.
But… I kept pushing… through the tears and the pain… my current timing stands at an average of 5 mins per kilometer. Longest I’ve been was 13km. There is research supporting the benefits of keeping your joints moving helps with RA.
Anyways getting back to the keto diet… I used to have severe indigestion when I was on wheat, rice. That seems to have gone down for now. Only consistency will tell. I’ve been having eggs, cabbage, strawberries and a few other vegetables. Some of them were consumed as juices.
https://pixels.com/featured/enjoying-food-and-drink-leon-zernitsky.html I’ve got something to say about Watermelons…
Any reliable site regarding the keto diet, would say that they are good. But on three separate occasions, I’ve had bloating after having them. Was it because they were too sweet? Bloating is due to a buildup of gas.
Stretching. Been watching a few calisthenic videos as of recent. That got me into regular stretching – times a day. Its my fourth day of doing it. It barely helps in my current state.
https://www.peonyandparakeet.com/stretch-your-style/ Overall, I don’t want to be fighting a battle if I’ve already lost. It’s hard, but I’m not giving up on myself..
And either way my friends won’t…
So long till the next post!
My journey with Rheumatoid arthritis
I’ve been stuck with rheumatoid arthritis for the past 10 years 😞, maybe 🤔 even more. And as you know RA is progressive, with me having to face a downward spiral… it had me dizzy to the point that I… just couldn’t take it anymore.
Multiple joint pains, my chest infections, and blurry vision, really spooked 😣 the living lights off of me.
Thanks to friends, they finally got me to look into my diet seriously. And, I’ve got to admit that it was crappy…
With (grains like) rice, wheat filled with toxins, The burden of mono-culture coupled with processed foods I really wanted to find out for myself how they contribute to my inflammation.
And the way to do that was to start by recording my diet by some format (diet logbook, regular instagram posts)
The only alternative staring at me like the elephant in the room, was the keto diet. The pathophysiology of RA, talks about inflammation and this diet seeks to lower it, so it’s someway to get off this scary spiral ride.
Will keep you guys updated, with how I actually feel over the days, so you can decide for yourselves.
I’m dedicating this to others with RA around the world. Perhaps together we can end this deadly spiral and prove them wrong that this ain’t the end of the road.
https://www.saatchiart.com/print/Painting-Never-Ending-Road/162091/3613265/view
Love ❤️ in Depth!
Love is a strong, lasting affection and dedication to someone else. It’s like a mother’s love for her child. It can also mean the deep care and attraction between partners.
Love includes many strong and happy feelings, like being really good to others, caring a lot about people close to you, and feeling joyful about simple things.
How Exactly Does Love Work?
When you love someone, your brain releases special chemicals that make you feel good. This can cause physical changes, like a faster heartbeat when you see them.
At the beginning of our journey of love, three brain chemicals play a big role: noradrenaline, which makes adrenaline, giving us a racing heart and sweaty palms; dopamine, the happy chemical; and phenylethylamine, which gives us butterflies when we’re around our crush.
Real love doesn’t give you the rush of adrenaline; it feels more like the calmness after a comforting hug. It doesn’t confuse you or leave you with doubts; it feels genuine in a way that goes deep. But sometimes, it can be complicated.
When Does Love Begin?
When you’re in love, thoughts of that person fill your day from dawn to dusk. You crave their presence, dream of a future together, and seek ways to express affection. Love also means committing to making the relationship flourish.
Love doesn’t follow a strict schedule. Some feel an instant spark, while others take time to develop a deep bond. It’s often complex, sometimes even “complicated.”
Being in love means investing your time and emotions into one person. Other romantic interests fade into the background. If you prefer spending romantic moments exclusively with your partner, it’s likely love.
In love, you feel liberated to be your true self with someone who knows you completely. However, mere attachment may lead to feelings controlling your thoughts and actions, sometimes leading to manipulation to maintain the connection.
Why Should We Love, What’s the Point?
Love empowers you, making life seem brighter and more joyful. It gives you the bravery to tackle challenges you once thought impossible. Love inspires you to reach new heights.
Genuine love goes beyond surface-level connections. It’s about understanding each other’s deepest values, beliefs, and aspirations. This creates a strong bond of companionship, where both partners feel united in pursuing shared dreams.
Love motivates us to collaborate and cooperate like no other force. It strengthens our mental and physical well-being, contributing significantly to our survival and overall health.
Fallout
Falling out of love can happen when our circumstances change or as we grow individually, leading us down different paths. Sometimes, what once brought us together may no longer align with our evolving values and aspirations. See how you can rediscover shared interests and activities to reignite the spark.
Additionally, the initial excitement and passion of a relationship can fade over time, revealing compatibility issues or fundamental differences that become harder to ignore. Communication breakdowns, unresolved conflicts, or external pressures can also strain the bond between partners. To repair a strained relationship, address the underlying issues.
Ultimately, falling out of love occurs when the emotional connection and intimacy between partners weaken, making it challenging to sustain the relationship despite efforts to reconcile. So prioritize open and honest communication to rebuild trust and intimacy.
