Have you ever experienced 'doing fatigue'?
You know...the type of fatigue that only comes when you do too much doing?
You feel tired most of the time. At the end of the day, you're zonked and utterly exhausted. Where you feel like you can't even make it from the couch to the fridge. And the next day wake up feeling like you've barely recovered but you still have to get out of bed and be a functioning human? ...ever felt like this?
I get it! Most of us have full-time jobs, kids, partners, a side hustle, the list goes on. When you mix that in with all the normal life stuff like housework, bills, groceries, pick up and drop off's, etc, life can be pretty jam-packed.
When you think about it, it's easy for life to become a daily grind of hustle and bustle and never-ending 'doing'.
In most western cultures 'the norm' is to be productive and achieve results. Our culture is geared toward rewarding hard work and goes by the notion that you only rest once you've achieved or once you've been productive. Rest and relaxation are not necessarily inbuilt in our culture or society. Most of us need to learn it. The same goes for expressing ourselves creatively.
Doing fatigue is when you have spent all day/week/year in a constant state of activity. There has been little time for breaks, rest, or reprieve. The mind and body are in a constant state of fight or flight where cortisol and adrenaline are pumping through the body.
What happens when you stay in this state for too long is your body struggles to keep up with the demand. And so, you become fatigued. Some people reach burnout or even adrenal fatigue and are eventually forced to retreat in order to recover.
When you are in a state of 'constant doing' your #feminine qualities of feeling, sensing, intuition, trust, and creativity become suppressed. You are so busy using your energy doing things you forget to listen to your body.
You stop tending to your basic needs like:
> ignoring the need to go to the toilet
> hold tension in the shoulders
> sit at a desk for long periods without moving
> forget to drink water
> skip exercise
Have you experienced this?
You see we all have access to #feminine qualities of feeling, sensing, intuition, trust, and creativity. But, we don't always use them. It's all about finding a balance between striving for success (purpose) and softening into the feminine ways of giving ourselves a moment to rest, assess and tend to our needs.
So, how do you do this? How do you begin to access your feminine qualities and tend to your bodily needs?
I like to call this the STOP, DROP and LISTEN practice.
Most of us need to learn how to do this. It's not something that's really taught to us.
This exercise has truly changed my life. It really helped me to see all the ways I was ignoring my body. It kicked started a journey of active listening and as a result improved health and wellbeing.
Your body is a powerful tool and often we're all guilty of ignoring simple signs like thirst, which if we didn't ignore them, and we tended to this basic need, it would lead us to better health and wellness. If you listened to your thirst your body would be hydrated. A hydrated body functions better. Your organs can rid of waste and toxins. When your organs function at their optimum and does the job they're meant to, you feel better. And so, you have energy, vitality, focus and drive.
The stop, drop and listen exercise is where you consciously choose to take a moment out of your day to STOP what you are doing, take 30 seconds to do a body scan and assess what you are ignoring and tend to that need.
You could schedule it in your diary, or do it on your lunch break. You can even do it at your desk and no one else would need to know. It's that simple. You can also find a quiet place or go outside.
Here's how you can do it for yourself:
Step one: Stop what you are doing. Put whatever you are doing to the side.
Step two: Breath three times
Step three: With your eyes closed or open begin by scanning your body slowly from head to toe. When you are doing this consciously take note of where in your body you are feeling something. You might feel discomfort, pleasure, pain, or you might feel a sensation.
Step four: Once you have completed your body scan check-in with yourself and ask what sensation or feeling am I ignoring *right now*?. It could be that you need to go to the toilet and you've been holding on. Maybe you are sitting in a position that is causing discomfort. Maybe you are hungry.
Step five: Take action to tend to that feeling or sensation. Give yourself a drink, take a break, change what you are doing.
Step six: Once you've tended to that need ask yourself, how do I feel now?
It's that simple.
I'd love to know how you went. Drop me a line and share your experience.
Opmerkingen