This morning, beautiful sunshine and I wake up early, the kids still asleep. Even as I finish my exercising, I come back into a quiet house and the only sound comes from birds singing and a ticking clock…
I can feel how my body relaxes in this silence and struck by the intensity of the experience, I think back to a conversation with a colleague. She said « looking back, I don’t know how I did it. I guess I was just making sure I survive… ». The my visceral reaction to the silence this morning was a beautiful reminder of that.
I had a mini-version of surviving in the past months (and a few maxi-versions in my life earlier on). I tried to live and work in the middle of a construction site inside and around our house that interrupted my work, that left little silence to concentrate and was rich of disturbances of any kind. Once the noise had ebbed, the holes were filled, the dust had settled, I did what I always do – and I guess most of us: work extra-hard to catch up with « lost » time, go back to normal.
And just this morning I thought: how about getting curious how I survived? How about taking time to acknowledge I had a rough moment? How about taking time to recover before I press on?
And so here I am, taking my own medicine. With my clients, I often work on topics that involve trusting themselves and taking care of themselves. Over and over I see the power of just acknowledging: « it’s a lot that I do, and it’s Ok to feel tired ». That releases a lot of the weight of self-judgment, of the thinking that whatever I do, it’s never enough.
Even if there is little or no time to rest, taking a moment to notice what I went through and which capability supported me can recharge me quite a bit. In my mini-survival that was: I can be creative in finding places to work, I can delegate and set boundaries, I can overlook dirt and chaos, I’m OK without warm water for a few days in a row.
Today, I feel less guilty enjoying a work-free moment, enjoying that my kids sleep in (they are on vacation) and I do not get any request from them (yet). And I take my recovery more seriously.
How about you? What was a had moment you went though? How did you acknowledge it?
I’d love to hear from you!
This is so true! Allowing ourselves to pause and take in whatever we have accomplished, whatever we have been through, particularly the hard stuff. When I was going through the hard stuff of divorce and single parenting with a toddler, I never took time to acknowledge myself. You know what I’m doing this summer? For the first time I’m having two weeks off without my kid, and while I was considering I *should* do something super productive like backpacking in India or southeast Asia (lol, very relaxing when you’re a burnt out mom), Im booking a two weeks ayurvedic cure at a quiet place in the countryside, in Europe, near my home. So yes I’m having an old lady holiday and I’m owning it! Because I’m finally accepting that years of burnout call for radical rejuvenation, and I’ve gotta make space for it, in small and large ways. So, yes to time for recovery! Thank you for this post 🙂
Thank you, MG, for sharing your pain!
I feel grateful that we met thanks to ICC when we could (should) have met a lifetime earlier in the corporate world!
Happy to travel alongside you!
Oh yes !!! Taking the time to thank myself for what I have done for myself is sooo important. Almost one year has passed since I left the company. Since then I spent time studying but also home working. And this was the toughest time… accepting that although I wake up early as I am used to I don’t have to go anywhere and while home doing the “cleaning home stuff”. Seeing that the other working pals in the house enjoy having you there and realising that on men’s archaic minds if a women is home, for she’s doing the home job. Feeling guilty for not doing this or that and then doing it all because you have to…
But that was BEFORE, before I decided that I am not supposed to be perfect, taking some days for the studies and some for the soul and energetic work. Then comes happiness and healing and as I am happy I spread it in the house and this is soooo goood ! Morning meditation and self Reiki is a gift I give myself several days a week and this is between me and I.
Merci, Nananini de partager ton voyage! Tu es parfaite!
Merci à toi d’avoir initié le mouvement et donné l’opportunité de prendre un moment pour regarder en arrière 🙏🏻😘
😍