If someone said to you, “I will give you six months to work from home, be with your family, discover new ways of working and relating” would you have received that as a gift and opportunity or as a punishment?
I don’t think that it is this simple. Nor can we live only in a reflective question. However, we are six months into an experience that is still uncertain. Made even more complex by a highly-charged political and cultural environment. As expected, things are bubbling up.
What is bubbling up for you?
As I spoke with a client/friend this week with whom I share many of the same qualities we were confessing that our stress is chronic and our normally very good coping skills were no longer working. We compared some of our emotional and physical symptoms trying to be very self-aware that we had symptoms of fraying.
We concluded that how we coped no longer worked for the situation. That our normally good stress mediation techniques were being over- used and in fact any strength over-used becomes a liability. As we spoke and shared we admitted that we were not our best selves in all situations.
Mine takes the form of a chronic head-ache, fatigue, jaw-clenching when I sleep and a resulting irritability. Someone who has known me for more than thirty-years noticed a change in my voice tone and tenor. I knew that when it could be noticed – it had become acute.
I am consulting with a physician to rule out any physical concerns. I am still meditating, exercising, journaling, and talking things through. My only big crutch has been sugar – specifically ice cream. So I have started a sugar-free regime and reclaimed my good eating habits. But I am still off-balance.
While talking with this client/friend we both admitted to becoming more rigid in our routines and now recognize this as a need to control what we can. Being pretty disciplined individuals this over-use of control may not be so helpful.
Our breakthrough idea was that we needed to shift our environment. Without the ability to travel or vacation away we were behaving liked caged animals…walking the same path over and over and over again. Our intentions are good. Our efforts hard working. But we are working too hard.
What once were our strengths are being over-used and not to our best interest.
We both agreed that we needed to shake things up.
For me, it will be moving into my big house, two miles down the road from my lakeside cottage. Though I visit it daily and spend time in its welcoming rooms, I have not slept in my new home since acquiring it and getting it all set.
I light up when I travel to new places with new sights, smells, routines and fresh experiences. I am grateful that my trip will just mean transporting me and my animal crew down the road. I was going to do this after the summertime but I think I need a change of locale. I need to shake things up.
If I didn’t have this good fortune, I would need to shake things up in my daily routines in place.
I am working hard, head down — but realize I am in a rut. I will lift up my head, look around, admire my surroundings, and forge a new path.
Can you relate?
Are you working hard but maybe too hard? Do you need to shake things up in your life?
I would rather be awake to the aches and pains of this journey than to numb myself with other substances – mine was sugar. It is time to say good-bye to the crutch and hello to a happier body and a better way to make my way into and through our uncertain future.
What I am certain about is that people are basically good, well-intended, and able to learn if they want to; and that two heads are better than one. These are my beliefs and they are still intact. This gives me hope for our futures.
Well wishes to you, your families and those that you lead.
Leslie
