The Overachiever's Guide to Joy

About this book

A transformative, practical guide to true wellness and a life of abundance and balance, from the renowned astrophysicist, TED Fellow, and working mother.What would your life look like if you allowed yourself to rest?Dr. Aomawa Shields is a lifelong overachiever. While working harder than everyone else led to career success and public accolades--from completing her six-year PhD program in five to presenting a celebrated TED Talk that has received 1.8 million views--when she became a mom, a crisis of mental and physical health forced her to question the cost of pushing herself to the brink--and look for a better way.As an astronomer searching for life on other planets, Dr. Shields has long learned from the cosmos, and in these pages she shares her hard-won wisdom, structured over the course of a year of practice. With her expert guidance and the same rest tools she teaches her students, you can learn to: choose self-compassion over self-hatred and -critique pause and settle using techniques from yoga nidra, mindfulness, and journaling take action from a place of rest, which is far more productive than action born from chronic exhaustion, anxiety, and stress set boundaries with yourself and others unravel expectations around being a "good mother, "good daughter," "good friend," and "good worker" live seasonally and in relationship with nature Dr. Shields' tools allow the body and mind to rest so overachievers can hear wisdom from within, often for the first time, about the unique fears that keep them striving for perfection, and the authentic pursuit of joy that can replace those fears. With mindful practices, prompts, and takeaways, Dr. Shields shows us how being realistic about our commitments can be a triumph, not a failure; why a 30 minute mini-vacation needs to be in your schedule; and what to say to ourselves when we feel that itch to do "one more thing" on our phone--even when we know it's a losing battle.While Dr. Shields used to identify more with the heat and intensity of O-type stars, she now values the slow burn of M-type stars. It is time to release your old thinking and its path to burnout and instead embrace a way forward that nourishes your peace, wholeness, and connection to self and the universe.