There are times when giving your all and going above and beyond can be bad for you without the balance of asking for help or living in community.  When we withdrawal from everyone around us but find ourselves constantly trying to look and be perfect, we live in a consistent stress bubble.

Giving too much without help can cause isolation, anxiety and depression in women.  It can lead to the following cycle in our lives:

Negative Cycle

Superwoman Mentality --> Anxiety --> Withdrawal --> Isolation --> Depression

Instead of finding joy in being an amazing wife, friend, daughter, and career woman; we find ourselves performing well but feeling horrible.  This can eventually effect our health and joy levels as women aiming to please GOD with our decisions.

This reminds me of years ago when I was doing ministry non-stop.  I was meeting with people all day long then going home but failing to stop to eat consistently, take care of my body or enjoy my life.  It was only a matter of time before I faced a breakdown.

I needed help and would be tremendously blessed once I lived in the reality of a Proverbs 31 lifestyle.  The Proverbs 31 woman is an amazing wife, "Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?  She is more precious than rubies.  Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life."

She is industrious and hard working, "She finds wool and flax and busily spends it.  She is like a merchant's ship, bringing her food from afar.  She gets up before breakfast to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day's work for her servant girls."

She is also a business woman, "She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard.  She is energetic and strong, a hard worker.  She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night."

She is a housekeeper and philantropist, "Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber.  She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy.  She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes...She carefully watches everything in her household."

And she is a well respected community leader, "Her husband is well known in the city gates, where he sits with the other civic leaders...She is clothed with strength and dignity."

This is a woman of authority, grace, dignity and noteriety; she is very giving and incredibly hard working, yet she is balanced.  She has help from her "servant girls" or "handmaidens."  This lost art of servanthood and female discipleship helps her lead others into their personal calling on a deep relational level.

She is not worried.  She is not afraid.  She is full of joy, trusting the LORD able to laugh about the days to come.  Because of this she is full of both kindness and wisdom receiving the rewards of her hard work and efforts.

Instead of living in the negative Superwoman Cycle she lives the following way:

Positive Cycle

Proverbs 31 Mentality --> Help Received --> Connectivity --> Fellowship --> Joy

As she asks for help, surrounds herself with others and receives the help she is given, her heart is reconnected with life as it should be; she enjoys fellowship of others and lives in relational joy.

It is here that she finds the freedom from isolation that inevitably surrounds those who give so much they do not ever connect with others.  Many times when we live in such a way we feel like we are constantly giving to others yet feel very alone.  We feel constant anxiety and depression trying to overtake our emotional lives because we are doing too much.

We feel isolated because we are not connected with other people, trying to hold it all together and never showing how we really feel when we are overwhelmed or have negative thoughts.

Maybe you can relate to some of these emotions and want to be free from the negativity cycle.