Click HERE for Part 1 and HERE for Part 2.
Rushing for me is a guarantee for being in a rancid mood. You will know if I feel rushed, as you can see it written all over me. I am usually early for things, I rarely oversleep an alarm, I like promptness and clarity and calm. This is also in part though as I am naturally hyper enough as it is, ADD (actually not just a term for being distracted), OCD (again, diagnosed, not just a term for being pedantic) and a Virgo, and I overthink, so all of this combined means I am very organised and border on panic when I feel things are out of control. So, in other words, I am super relaxed and go with the flow… hahaha jokes. So when people say they feel overwhelmed, I empathise deeply.
Arran on the other hand, if I were the hare, he is the turtle. And he hates being rushed too. So yes our archetypal personalities will play into our ability to cope with overwhelm, yet no one I know loves feeling contracted, pushed and rushing around like a mad person. Someone about a decade ago asked me if I was racing to the grave. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
The key thing is I think we rarely give ourselves enough space. Our gorgeous ambition, in Ayurveda they call it Rajasic nature, in Taoism, the Yang element, the outward flow of energy, means we overestimate how long everything will take. And we then experience too much yang, too much out, and we burn out.
Essentially we kid ourselves. We cram and we push and we focus on attempting to, with futility, get our to-do list done, even though it NEVER ends. I mean let’s take pause. Have you EVER, in your entire adult life gone, wow I literally have not a single thing to do, not one, every task I have ever assigned myself is complete. I doubt it. There’s the responsibilities part, but there’s also the fun stuff, the people to see, the family to spend time with, the hobbies to explore, getting fit and on and on. So with this tip of mind, take a look at your week, and check if you are cramming like crazy. We have to ask, what’s the point?
Allow time in between meetings, in between tasks to take tiny pauses. To remember to breathe. I’m happy these days to get less done, and yet not feel rushed. My quality of life is now more important than my productivity. Ironically, it has helped my productivity even more, and the clarity that comes from it has helped my creativity and my ambitions. My goals are clearer and my sites are set with ease. Taking time creates more time. But it’s hard to see this when we are in the storm.
Some suggestions to help you transform your work days (which always feel more rushed, don’t they?!) include:
- Walking to work instead of driving/riding/transporting and if you can’t do this, stop two blocks ahead and walk that last bit, no looking at your phone, just presence. This makes a sublime difference.
- Don’t drink or eat ANYTHING at your desk aside from water. Take your meals, tea, coffee, juices sitting down elsewhere. Be present to them, enjoy them. There’s nothing worse than scoffing a whole piece of cake and not remembering even eating it! Enjoy those cookies!
- Hot water is better than cold water. Try to avoid cold water or iced water at all costs, it makes your nervous system jumpy and anxious.
- Finish meetings on time. Ruthlessly. At the beginning of a professional meeting if I feel it will run over or it’s a new person, I say that I really value their time and am going to set an alarm for 10 minutes out, so that we can finish on time and summarise the meeting and next actions once the alarm goes off, and ask if that’s okay by them. I am confident they don’t want to be rushed either, and I don’t want to be responsible for their rushing their day too.
- Don’t check emails if you can’t answer them then and there. Knowing something, and now not being able to fix it, is not going to leave you in a good mood. Check emails when you can answer emails. And if you want to feel really good about life, preferably try to get off emails as much as you can.
- Don’t take work calls at home at night. Set boundaries so you’re not always ‘at work’.
- If we don’t want to feel like life is passing us by, we just need to experience life. Get off our phones. Connect to the world.
OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
These are some extra things I employ. It can get a little woo woo and ‘LA’ sometimes in our house and Arran has many a laugh at me with Marley going about whatever it is I am going about…
I work with Australian Bush Flower Remedies a lot, you can also look up Bach Flower Remedies if it’s easier for you to access. I use the Transition Essence when flying, the Abund Essence when feeling flat, and Creative a lot! Also this Protection Essence I use in the morning before leaving the house, I dab it at the back off my neck and just above my belly button as a healer of mine showed me too.
This Shakti Mat I stand on every morning for acupressure and also use rolled up in the afternoon for my neck after writing all day. I like the company ethos, and they have branches around the world!
I use medicinal mushrooms and they work better when taken regularly (but I often forget in truth). Kirst at Orchard St spent years researching the very best and you can find them here.
I have acupuncture on the regular. My favourite in Sydney is Jo Yeldham, her email is yeldham.jo@gmail.com and she literally saved me the last 6 months through a chaos of travel, moving, too many projects and kept me balanced and sane! I don’t know any others yet globally, but I find asking around helpful to get word of mouth recommendations.
When my energy is totally out of whack, I see energy healers. Trine is someone I have been working with for years now, all over the world, she works remotely. I don’t know how that works to be honest, I just know it works. Her email is u.v.been.trined@gmail.com I am normally tentative to give out the details of my healers as they are not for everyone, but if you want an empowered woman who works psychological and physical magic, and you’re happy to put aside scepticism at first, she’s your girl. Corrie Okkkerse in Sydney is brilliant, and is in Europe a lot corrieokkerse@hotmail.com and she works with the divine, light and energy and I adore her and her work.
I hope this insanely lengthy Letter has been of some help and has given you some tools, and things to consider!
Sent with love,
Jac x