So go on. Be selfish for five minutes. The world will still be spinning when you come back. And honestly? You’ll be much nicer to everyone else when you do.
On page 34, we talk to three real women who did something radical last weekend: they turned off their phones. No Instagram stalking. No frantic WhatsApp groups. One of them, 32-year-old receptionist Chloe from Manchester, spent Saturday morning just staring at a wall. “I cried,” she told us. “Because I realised I hadn’t been still for ten years.”
We spend so long trying to be the perfect girlfriend, the perfect employee, the perfect daughter, that we forget to be the perfect friend to ourselves .
Remember that promise you made yourself in June? “This summer, I’ll relax.” Did you? Or did you spend July worrying about the credit card bill, August stressing about the kids being bored, and the first week of September pretending you love making packed lunches?
In 2012, we are expected to be available 24/7. We are expected to have the body of Cheryl Cole, the patience of the Queen, and the social life of Kate Middleton. It’s a fantasy. And it’s making us miserable.
