It can creep up ever so slightly and without a trace. One minute we are fine and the next minute we are burning the wick at both ends. You know what it is – you can feel the lump in the your throat and the shortness in your breath and you feel completely overwhelmed. Sometimes we are not even sure where this feeling is coming from. Sure as women, we deal with hormonal shifts, but sometimes we just fill our plates with too much for one person and the overflow is bound to happen at some point. I am burnt out from this year, from the news, from what is going on all around me and even my own personal situations. When I feel this way I need to seek solace–a tough order in this day and age, but I found a few things that helped me. Here are some things I did…
1- Quiet the noise – it is ok to set boundaries and it is ok to work on yourself and be selfish so to speak. One of the ways that I refocus is to quiet down go within. There is nothing wrong with this and we should not feel guilty in the least when we feel we have to do this. Some people will not understand and that is ok. In the quiet there is restoration and healing. Embrace it.
2- Embrace the changes – I love change but tend like to “control” my changes and be in charge of them. Well this year was different. I couldn’t control any of the changes and had to learn and be flexible with them. This change leads to tremendous growth and is all part of the journey. Even when the change is intentional, sometimes we get so caught up in the growth and change that we don’t stop to S. L. O. W. down and just relish how far we’ve come what we have already accomplished …enjoy the journey my friends …the road isn’t that long. Speaking of RELISH — this is my new year of 2021. No more burning at both ends or taking anything for granted. I will relish the NOW.
3- Simplify – this was my word of 2020. I needed to simplify even more just to feel like I was surviving. Nothing wrong with this but it was eye opening just to see how much I still felt the need to simplify. A few areas I focused on were:
- schedule
- media consumption
- social circles
- my home
- my thoughts
- clean and declutter
4 – Slowing down – this year we were forced to … and many of us really began to understand what truly matters. I know for me it really reemphasized what my priorities are and what I should really be focusing on the most. This year has really stripped us of the non-essential and made the essential the star of the show. I want to take away from this experience the true meaning of prioritization and continue making room for what matters most and mindfulness.
5- Realize not a lot really matters – realizations are like epiphanies sometimes. Sure I am all about being present and valuing the things that matter most, but still had a ton of things that I would focus on or make a big deal out of that REALLY DID NOT MATTER. It truly is an understatement to say that my entire outlook on so many things has shifted. I get angry a lot less, I have WAY more patience and let things go so much faster. This was a big win of this past year and I hope it never changes or leaves me.
To conclude, I have realized the utmost importance of self-care. It isn’t about helping you be productive AGAIN, rather it is a reminder that you are MORE important than productivity. So with that, it must be said, it is super important to take care of YOU, because if you don’t, who will?