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2020 4 Dimensional Wellness Emotional Honesty Energy Boosters Happiness Live Happy Inspiration Sick & Tired of feeling Sick & Tired

Why being “over it” is actually a good thing…

Call me crazy but I love hearing when clients or friends are “totally over it”. When they can’t look at another “fat picture” or drag themselves into the office for another soul-destroying day. I know that may seem mean because it means they are miserable, but I think of being over it, really, really over it, as a special kind of breakthrough.

There are two stages.

The early-stage where we just like to just talk about being “over it”. We actually secretly enjoy talking about our awful boss, or our nightmare mother. When people are really, truly over it however, they don’t want to talk about it. They have talked about it to death but that hasn’t made them thinner or their relationship happier or their career more lucrative.

When people are truly over it they can actually hear themselves repeating those same old lines and they are sick of hearing themselves. Moaning no longer cuts the mustard. We are actually boring ourselves.

Being “over it” feels awful. It can feel like despair, it can feel like we have no real options or choices, it can feel like nothing we might do will make a difference. It can feel lonely. It can feel isolating. But in actual fact when you strip this away rock bottom can be fundamentally liberating.

When we are so sick of a situation in our lives the choice has to be change.

Changing either how we choose to think about the situation or changing the situation itself. When we start to open the mind to the fact that there has to be another way then hey presto some solutions will start to present themselves. “Over it” becomes the first step on the pathway to something far better. When we reach rock bottom and are sick to death of a situation it can be just the springboard we need to move to a far brighter future.

Here’s the funny thing about being “over it”. You can’t really get over it, skip it, miss out the pain or the hassle or the scariness of sorting out whatever situation it is you are over. You can’t actually get over it without going through it. The way out is through whatever change is required not over. We are creatures of comfort as a rule so we tend to avoid the tough stuff, the convo with the boss about the payrise or the missed promotion, the meeting with the neighbor about their continually barking dog. But this is the way over to the other side of our pain, to front up and deal with whatever it is. To go through to come out the other side.

Good stuff starts to happen when the pain of being “over it” becomes greater than the perceived fear of changing the situation or our thoughts about it.

Learning not to be afraid of, or to resist “over it”, but to welcome it, can transform how quickly we move forward in life.

As the great Harry Potter author JK Rowling (and let’s face it she’s done okay latest novel notwithstanding!) famously said “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life”.

Action Step: in what area of your life are you ”over it”? An energy-sucking friendship? A tired and outdated kitchen? Being unfit? Identify it and then choose to either change the way you feel about it or change the situation.

Remember the way out isn’t over it is through.

Categories
Adrenal Fatigue Energy Boosters Self Care and Self Love Sick & Tired of feeling Sick & Tired

Why You Should Recharge Your Battery On The Go

Why You Should Recharge Your Battery On The GoThe inimitable Arianna Huffington was in New Zealand last week. Founder of The Huffington Post, and listed as the 52nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, to say I was excited is an understatement.

Arianna has fascinated me. Not only has is she a media and political heavyweight, what appeals to me most is that she has shouted loud about the bottom line value of wellbeing in big business. That we have a personal and corporate responsibility to take care of our wellbeing. Her bestselling book “Thrive” documents her journey from collapse from fatigue back to wellness. There are so many parallels with what I write about here, and my own book “The Busy Woman’s Guide to High Energy Happiness” about my journey from collapse from fatigue back to wellness I couldn’t wait to hear her speak.

She did not disappoint. She was radiant and spoke with real power.

I’m going to share my favourite analogy from her speech as it resonates so strongly with what we talk about here at Wellbeing Wednesday.

She said this:

“We are taking care of our smart phones better than we are taking care of ourselves”.

She has a point.

Why You Should Recharge Your Battery On The GoYou know how it is, when you notice the battery on your phone is running down, oh my god, I’ve only got 12% battery left! It’s actually an almost panicky feeling. I know I am not alone in asking a café to recharge my phone, or being at a meeting and charging it mid-meeting. ONLY TWELVE FREAKING PERCENT BATTERY LEFT?!! What will I do? Must charge that phone. Immediately!

However. The day I collapsed at work from extreme fatigue, never to return, I was down to, what 3% of my body’s battery? But I had never stopped and prioritised recharging it. I just sort of assumed my own personal battery was infinitely recharging. Like I am sort of one woman Duracell Bunny.

Stupid, right?

We check and look at our phone battery life all the time. We get it charged if it’s running low. That’s important goddamit! Can’t be without our phone.

How often do we check in and look at the level of our own body’s battery? Nowhere near as often.

I think we have our priorities a little bit messed up.

Arianna is right.

“We are taking care of our smart phones better than we are taking care of ourselves”.

So, stop. Right now. RIGHT NOW! What does your own personal battery readout say? Are you at 80% or 45% or 12% of vitality, energy and wellbeing?

Scan your body and find out.

If it needs charging, then, do what you would do with your phone. Charge it up. We need a high charge so power through life and attend to what is important to us.

Here’s a great new habit to commit to. Check in with your own personal battery level each time you check your phone charge. If it’s running low give it a quick boost with a walk round the block. A chat with a friend. Five minutes quiet time. Going to bed early. Ditching the coffee for a peppermint tea. Little recharging pit stops that keep your battery topped up.

Take care of yourself better than your smartphone.

There is only one of you. You are far less easy to replace.

Louise Thompson

Categories
Self Care and Self Love Sick & Tired of feeling Sick & Tired

7 Unusual Tips to Get Energised When You Are Totally Exhausted

7 unusual tips to get energisedPushing through when you have little in the tank can be a fact of our busy lives. So much to do, so little time! How can you get a little extra juice to get yourself engaged when you are in that 3pm low energy slump? 5 quick tips (not the usual “drink some water blah blah blah!) to give you an instant boost right here:

  1. Have a left brain/right brain break. If you are grinding through it’s often because you are stuck in left brain mode where the focus is all on task and time. Time and task. Task and Time. Stop, just for 15 minutes and do something that energises your right brain. Your right brain is fueled by creativity, play and connection. Go chat to a colleague for 15 minutes. Watch a few funny you tube clips. Doodle.
  2. Move your body. It seems counterintuitive when you are tired to move, but it’s actually weirdly energising. Get outside for 15 minutes. Walk round the block. Do squats whilst you wait for the kettle to boil. Stretch whilst you wait for the baby to settle. Take the stairs to see the marketing department not the lift. Get your blood circulating a bit faster, the extra oxygen will energise you.
  3. It may sound obvious….but GIVE YOUR PRECIOUS SELF A REST! If that’s not possible in right now diarise it in for as soon as you can. Feeling perpetually knackered is a sign from your body that you need a bit of downtime, not that you need another double shot latte. Diarise in some rest and relaxation: that’’s not selfish, that is listening to your body. We are Human Beings, not Human Doings…we are not built to be “on” all the time. Give yourself permission to rest WITHOUT GUILT.
  4. Move your mood with music. This is my go to energiser. When I am tired and have given my all with back to back clients the fastest and easiest way to energise is to play a couple of feel good tunes (Daft Punk “Get Lucky” always does it for me) and feel the energy switch-up that’s almost instantaneous. Extra points if you do a quick bit of dancing and throw some shapes. Gold star for what I fondly call “car dancing”.
  5. Call an energy bunny. We all have people in our lives that suck our energy and some that boost our energy and mood. Check out this post on energy vampires and energy angels. Put an emergency call into an energizing friend, ban yourself from saying “I’m so tired” and have a 5 minute upbeat energizing call. Get yourself back on their wavelength and feed off their energy for a short term boost.
  6. Look at how far you have come, not how far you have to go. The To Do list can be our nemesis which is extremely draining. When we focus on all that is left undone it is a big time energy sucker. Flip your focus and itemize all that you HAVE completed today/this week. Instead of looking at the mountain left to climb, take a moment to savour the view, look back at how far you have actually come.
  7. Understand the difference between Wired Tired and Inspired Tired. We are actually built to experience tiredness and it’s not always bad. Read about and understand the difference between good tired and bad tired, that will shift your perspective in an energizing instant.

 

Feeling a bit tired now and again is all part of living a full, fun life. Feeling perpetually knackered is not. That’s miserable and life becomes a horrible grind. If you are feeling that you are experiencing regular tiredness you may be suffering from Adrenal Fatigue – you can find out if that’s the case by taking the quick online quiz here – and if so help is at hand! I cover everything you need to know to recover from Adrenal Fatigue and be buzzing with energy in my book “The Busy Woman’s Guide to High Energy Happiness”: simple tips that make a huge difference. You can get your hands on a signed copy right here.

Louise Thompson

 

Categories
Live Happy Inspiration Reduce Stress Self Care and Self Love Sick & Tired of feeling Sick & Tired Simplicity and Time Management

Wasted Time or Play Time?

There is a common complaint that I notice with many of my coaching clients, especially those who are tired (or suffering from Adrenal Fatigue / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) or working through Life/Work Balance issues. They have a real thing about any kind of down time being ‘wasted time’. It’s a concept that comes up again and again. And I think it’s a new and growing phenomenon that’s leading to a whole heap of stress. I must confess to being susceptible to this Cult Of Productivity myself: I notice it when I am stuck in traffic, or when the computer isn’t working as perfectly as I would like it to, or ordering something is taking longer than I thought it would. This stressful thought keeps rearing its ugly head: ‘this is such a waste of time’, usually accompanied by its good friend ‘this should be quicker/easier/more efficient’.

These thoughts lead directly to a place of stress. Bad for the head, bad for the body.

It’s occurred to me that I didn’t use to feel this way. When I was younger I didn’t put this pressure on myself for every thing to have an outcome. Just enjoying or doing something for its own sake was enough. At school and university my friends and I elevated wasting time to an art form in its own right! And those are the bits I look back on with the most fondness. The endless games of cards and pissing about (car surfing anyone?!) And yet I, and so many of my clients, seem to now feel so uncomfortable with even the most limited moments of unproductivity.  What is that about?

As the world has become increasingly immediate and increasingly measureable I think it’s encouraged us to lead our lives in the same way. An expectation that all time and every effort invested should show some sort of meaningful outcome. But, should it?

I think the stress that the concept of ‘wasted time’ generates is due to a perception that time is inherently limited. That leads to a perception that all time needs to count with an outcome. Which generates stress. Is the point of time well spent to get things accomplished, or is it to have fun and experience the maximum amount of joy? As adults in this increasingly technologically enabled, measurable and immediate world I think we have lost the ability to play. Or to see play as an important part of what makes life fun and ourselves happy.

Look at how children play. When children play its as a means to an end in itself, because they see time as unlimited and therefore no outcome is required. So how can it possibly be wasted if it’s unlimited?

I think there is a lot we can learn from that attitude. This is what I have learned around the concept of ‘wasted time’:

  1. Just because it produces some sort of outcome doesn’t mean that it’s important.
  2. Just because its quantifiable doesn’t mean I should do it
  3. If the only joy in the doing is the crossing off on the list when it’s done then I should consider not doing it or getting someone else to do it for me
  4. Some of the best most fun and memorable time in my life had no definable outcome.
  5.  Unproductive time is a fact of life. We are not built to be ON all the time.
  6. Unproductive time is thinking and daydreaming and processing time. That is productive in itself.
  7. Play and fun are important.
  8. Resting and chilling ARE an activity in their own right. The outcome is being chilled. That’s something the body requires for health. It’s really important time.
  9. Enjoyment is just as valid a goal as achievement.
  10. I need to play more.

So I am challenging myself to reconnect with play for the sake of itself: I have joined a mosaic class one morning a week. I am really enjoying it; there is something very satisfying about fitting all the tiny chards of ceramic together for no reason at all other than the simple pleasure of doing it. It’s a bit fiddly and a bit messy. I like that, and the quiet companionship of the other women in the class. Sometimes I feel guilty about all the work I ‘should’ be doing and that it’s ‘wasted time’ then I remember, I’m a life coach, I teach people about life/work balance…this is me Living It to Give It and I relax and focus on the little fiddly tiles again and the couple of hours simply flies by! It’s been good for the mind and the soul.

If you find yourself running mental loops about wasting time it’s my bet that you could do with reintroducing a bit of play to your life too. Try using the time stuck at the grocery checkout and in traffic to daydream about your next holiday or the best one you ever had. It won’t wake the queue go faster but it will make it a more pleasant and positive experience. Think back to something you loved to do as a child to play (baking, playing footie, making things, etc) and try and introduce a related aspect of PLAY into your week with no aspect of outcome attached. Play for it’s own sake, and see that if we are in the moment and enjoying ourselves then no time is ever really wasted.

Louise Thompson | Life Coach, Writer, Speaker

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