If I leaned into ambition, I was “imbalanced.” If I leaned into rest, I felt “unproductive.” It wasn’t exhaustion that made me miserable. It was the constant self-judgment. And then a harder question surfaced— What if work-life balance is not a goal — but a myth?

While external time is measured and dictated by clocks and schedules, our body operates on its own internal clock, known as the circadian rh