How Close are you to Burn Out?

How close are you to Burn Out?

One of my friends says tooth-pick, chop stick and then 5 foot plank. Why? Well what she is referring to is the signs and subtle messages that give us a clue that something is going on in our bodies. The tooth-pick is ‘a bit of a niggle’ - you notice something but you choose to ignore it because you are soooo busy. In fact, what you might do is ignore any signs until later. That is when the chop-stick makes the signs more obvious, yet still you might just keep trudging on. It might be a pain, a headache or a whole host of tension and that is when the plank smacks you in the face and forces you to stop! Flu? A Migraine? Worse?

 

I am sure that you have noticed that life is getting busier and there is more information to process in all directions. We have emails, calls, texts and deadlines blasting us from all directions and we are always expected to be available. Why is that? Why have we accepted such a precedent? So how long can a nervous system and brain maintain such intense activity without bursting into flames? The answer is different for the individual. Some people are more resilient while others simply drop to the ground when a phone rings. The point that I am trying to make is how one needs to constantly pay attention to the body and how you are feeling. You may simply numb yourself and continue like a martyr. The problem with that is you build up fatigue and that fatigue resides in your body. No matter what you do your energy levels get lower and lower until that dreaded plank hits you with an illness that will stop you leaving your bed.

So…. I am all about solutions and finding easy ways to fit wellbeing into life. So this week I went on a Transcendental meditation course with the meditation trust. I will make this clear, I am not a wafty lettuce sniffing type who wears floaty scarves and belly-dances down the street with my underwear on my head. Although that does sound fun. I might try it sometime and see how the world responds to my new found knicker-head-wear and general jiggling. Anyway, I digress, so I went on this course because my brother recommended it. My brother is a university lecturer, academic and complete rationalist. So when I saw the drop in his shoulders, the general air of relaxation and the decrease in his anxiety then I knew that type of meditation was a good thing.

 

Before I go any further, I have to mention I do meditate. However, I often wander off into a self- amused plane for 20 minutes and then realise I ended up being lulled into thought by giggling at my own jokes. What I needed was a way to stop the inner distraction and TM solved this for me by providing a specific mantra that I could use. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but I often get bored during meditation, woops – it is the truth. There are far more interesting things I could be doing. The mantra combined with the cyclic rhythm enabled me to enter into a very relaxed state. The thing is it was while in this relaxed state that I realised how fatigued I was. After each meditation I would literally pass out and sleep! I did this continually over 3 days. I also had rapid dreams which could be compared to mental Tsunamis or a mental wildebeest stampede. I was astounded. When I talked to the instructor about it he said it was quite usual for people in high powered jobs to respond that way. It was then that I realised that I had probably been close to burn out. My tooth-pick signs were general grumpiness, feelings of general negativity (I am not a negative person) and tiredness, even though I had an excellent diet, sleep well and exercise regularly. The chop-stick signs were – a sty on the eye, a tooth abscess and tension in my shoulders. Luckily I got on this course before the plank came in and smacked me one! Now I am not saying that Transcendental meditation is for everyone; however, it is a great tool to have for life. It enables you to enter deep relaxation and cope with the external stresses of the world and personally found that my energy levels have improved. I will be honest I did not go to the main Transcendental Meditation group instead I went for the Meditation Trust who are cheaper and very grounded. The point that I am trying to make here is that one needs to pay attention to the signs their body is sending them because I honestly had no clue that I was as fatigued as I was. The thing is I was fatigued to the core and there was no escaping it. It then made me think that if I am like this and I do yoga, eat well and exercise then what are other people like? If anything, I hope this article will remind you to notice the signs and find ways to truly relax until to you are forced to rest by a large piece of metaphorical wood colliding with your face.J

 

 

You can find my books at the following link: Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

AUDIBLE BOOK AVAILABLE HERE:

 

LINK TO BUY ON AUDIBLE:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/A-Short-Course-In-Creative-Writing-Audiobook/B012OVUKE8/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1443260320&sr=1-1

 

LINK TO PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM

A Short Course in Creative Writing
by Ms Ruby Allure
Link: http://amzn.com/1517234832

 

 

It is TIME for YOU TIME!

You Time…

 

Is it really that indulgent to have time by yourself? To spend time alone and allow yourself the time to process your life and your experiences?  The thing is life gains momentum and becomes busier and busier. There is more to experience, more to distract yourself with, more social media than you can shake a stick at and more on the to do list than can be ticked. No matter how tick-tastic you are there is always more ticks to be added to the list. This seems to be how life has become and amongst the endless treadmill of experience and things to do – when do you allow yourself to be bored or to simply dream.

 

 

It was over the last few months that I realised that I was running on the fastest speed of the mental treadmill. I worked full time, in the evenings I listened and edited my audio books whilst writing my next book, socialising, promoting and marketing. All of this gradually became overwhelming to the point where I was becoming moody. There were endless appointments coming in and I found myself booked up for three months. The prospect of that made me feel like crying. I had stopped enjoying being out with people, instead I just wanted to get it over and done with. In my moments between blogging, writing, promoting and doing spreadsheets I would manage to fit in a bit of nutrition. It then occurred to me that I was not the only person who was living a life like this. Most of my friends were. In addition, some had weddings to organise and children to juggle. They were all running at full speed through life.

 

 

Last week I went to a baby blessing, a lovely event out in the forest with my best friend. Towards the end of the picnic she turned to me with an expression that revealed she was ecstatic but worn out. She stared me in the eyes and said ‘I NEED A TWILIGHT SPA!’ she didn’t care how much it cost, but she simply needed five hours out of the endless race that she felt she was competing against herself in. Her desperate need for time out triggered something in me because by the end of that weekend I had listened to 30 hours of my audio books and by Monday I was just ‘done’. Even though I had achieved a monumental feat I was moody and grizzly. It was then that I realised that I had had enough. I needed quiet time and I needed to schedule it in. So where was there space? I looked at my diary and realised that evenings were filled. Work had to be produced and the only time I could make me time was from 6 in the morning until 7.30. It was then that I decided that me time involved doing something I loved. I needed to start the day with something that inspired me and took me out of my mind back into body.

 

 

After a bit of thinking I came to a conclusion and I began stand up paddle boarding before work. Sitting watching sunrise on the sea from a stand up paddleboard really puts everything in perspective. There you are in a vast natural open space bobbing about like a small cork. The act of stand up paddle boarding takes you out of your head and back into body. For the first time in ages I felt connected and not in a mental and physical churn. Admittedly many people consider getting up so early madness, yet it is what I needed. My state of mind has shifted from churn to calm and the generated anxiety has stopped turning up. Now, from a calm and removed perspective, I can see how many people need the space for them but never quite find the space. When you don’t have that space to process your thoughts and experience you find that you are on a slippery road to burn out. I could see that I was heading in that fiery direction. So today I wanted to write about the fact that finding space to come out of the mind and be in a physical space through yoga, meditation, paddle boarding or simply journaling has to be one of the best things for you. Otherwise one builds resentment and time, the new wealth, feels as though it flies by. So my question is why do so many think it is indulgent to have time for yourself…  Time to be with you because then you will have more to give others.

 

 

LINK TO MONEY FARM:

 http://www.audible.com.au/pd/Fiction/Money-Farm-Audiobook/B010BKZK5I

"Smartly Written, Thought Provoking Read!"

Narration - Helen Lloyd - Kick A$$!
Really Great Narration - Brits and Aussies and Germans and more. Lovely voice to listen to and she even captured the rather robotic nature of the cult-like members of the Money Farm.

This is a really terrific book - and is it bad that for the majority of the book I was thinking "sign me up!" (or at least sign up one of my grand-kids and let me move into one of the retirement neighborhoods).

The Money's are all 'their best selves' due to the nutrition and fitness requirements along with a few other treatments along the way which are tailored to each individual and allow them to reach their full potential. All their needs are met, they have no debts, no worries, they are appreciated and they all live in really nice digs. (like I said...sign me up!)

It's a smartly written and thought provoking book of a Dystopian/Eutopian society where our heroine Jyllian finds her-self jobless with her savings running out. She ends up being selected to join the M.O.N.E.Y.'s as a "breaker" because of her intelligent & rebellious way of thinking. She is to challenge their systems and find ways to break them, all in the name of making them better.

The story follows her and a few other select characters through their introduction to Money, their training, their indoctrination and ultimately through their discovery of what Money's goals really are.

I can't really say much more without giving away too much, but I thought it was a really terrific book. It was hard for me to 'get into it' in the beginning, but I plan to listen to the start again.

It's smartly written and filled with intricate details about these two "worlds". Really an interesting book about the state of the worlds finances! Loved it! I'm actually stunned that I'm only the second review of this book on Goodreads. READ or LISTEN to it! It's a keeper!

I received a copy of this audiobook free of charge from Audiobookblast in exchange for an unbiased review.