I have just come back from a wonderful week in the sun. I am not going to talk too much about this as it might look like I am bragging—in fact, what I want to share is the value of dropping everything, kicking back and taking stock. Until I did this I had not really registered how tense, uptight, and stressed I was. On reflection, it dawned on me that I had been gritting my teeth and boxing on regardless of many small but nagging tell-tale signs that were trying to flag up exhaustion.
I appeared to have been—metaphorically speaking—banging my head against numerous brick walls, ignoring whether this was bringing in any positive results, just banging away. I had a list of things I had to achieve and by gum, I was going to achieve these. It is so easy to fall back into that same place, I can feel the lure as I type away. Barely looking up, doggedly driving myself.
So I want to say this to all of you out there—STOP—just for a few minutes (yes you CAN spare some time off!!) look around, take stock, be gentle on yourselves. Don’t drive yourself into a wreck; curb all those expectations. It is far easier to say than to do and so I have made some promises to myself that I do intend to keep—to take up meditation, to go for regular runs and basically to ensure that every single day I have some time which I use to take stock and put things into context.
It took me a whole week away to come to these decisions, but if you don’t have that luxury (especially at this time of year!), then get up half an hour earlier each morning and make that your time (not to empty the dishwasher or to prepare packed lunches in advance) but to consciously focus on reconnecting with yourself, to re-align your priorities, to cast out any negatives that assail you.... I used to think I would far rather have that extra thirty minutes in bed asleep but trust me, giving yourself that extra little bit of time is a wonderful gift—you owe it to yourself!
