Everyone I speak to including family members, colleagues, clients, and friends seems exhausted. I am currently on long service leave. I returned to my full-time role the second week in January, after two restful weeks off over the festive season. January used to be a quite time of settling back into the workplace, reconnecting with team members and community groups. Not this year. Between January and March I faced three months of of intensive and unplanned workload due to an organizational restructure. I knew it was coming, I did not know the workload it would bring. I was working and commuting long hours without making any headway on my actual, planned, workload. I fried my brain by doing too much, which was compounded by the onset of neurodivergent burnout.
But here is what really challenged me…doctor’s orders to take 4 weeks off, not working on the property, my business or doing anything that I felt like a “should”. Instead I was to fill my days with rest and things that re-energized me. I won’t say it was easy. For nearly two weeks my conscious mind made it seem impossible. But I persevered, consciously choosing to do things I know I love. Meditation, bush walks, time with horses, prayer, yoga, writing, painting, gardening and even watching an entire episode of Bridgerton in the middle of the afternoon without feeling guilty!
Slowly but surely my mind begun to unwind. I could relax into and enjoy these activities, not rush through them to get to the next thing on the list. And when this happened I realized something. Making time and space inside of me through mindfulness practice creates time and space in my external world which allows me to experience more of all that life has to offer. I know being on holidays is different to what we call real life. But now I know that we can take mindfulness into our real life and shift the reality of our days to create more time and space to rest, to recover, to create.
If you would like to trial a mindfulness practice, please visit our check out my free meditations on offer at https://rainbowridge.au/meditations/