Stop! Reflect and Balance

I recently wrote about being busy. Well I unfortunately fell down that rabbit hole. My only saving grace was that I knew it and did not try to out do anyone in how busy I’d been. My work life balance had tipped to far into work.

The last few weeks has seen me jump hard and deep down that rabbit hole of work. Against my own ideals of setting boundaries within myself of down time or I should say time for own interests. I raced back to work thinking I would be able to just pick those horse reins up and gallop away like I did before my leave. I was wrong. Very, very, very wrong!!

I become hard on myself for not meeting my own high expectations. Not keeping pace with work and all that I wanted to achieve. All those extra bits and bobs I take on on top of my usual duties. Then I would think about all I hadn’t done in my private life and the disappointment continued to just roll over me. Its all such cyclic nonsense of busy!

So what helped me turn it around to stop falling into that pit of despair? Forgiveness. One simple word but one tough act and mindset to pull off. What propelled me to forgive myself was a chance encounter with a fellow colleague. It was while talking with him about a student and he kept heading off on side tangents about other students. What’s more, every tangent he went off, he wanted information from me when I had been on leave. I left his office feeling distressed and desolate. Like it was my fault for not knowing when I wasn’t there.

I allowed myself a mental health day to regroup. I remembered something my boss said about the work will still be there tomorrow. I remembered how I wanted to change the balance of my life. I took time to breath. I allowed myself to sit of a morning and reconnect with my husband. I jog and solve the problems of the world with my running buddy. I garden. I wander my yard bare foot checking on plants and listening to the bees. I continue to connect with people at work over coffee or a quick chat. I give thanks and tell people their smile is beautiful or they look fabulous. I let people know when they’ve done awesome things. And you know what……my work volume increased and stress level decreased. Space between work and life gives both a chance to thrive and survive.

“We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list”

Michelle Obama, former First Lady