WiRE Blog

Distractions

Just like you, I have dreams and fantasies of how I want my life to be, and I work hard on creating positive change in my life, using a myriad of tools to help me emotionally, spiritually and physically. I know all the tricks in the book to enable me to successfully manifest the things that I want or need. I know it practically inside out, I live and breathe it and yet ….

My day to day challenges are dealing with the minutia, one of which is the never ending pile of paperwork that continues to grow, no matter how many times a week I steadfastly tackle it. Paperwork is my enemy. It lays around in my office refusing to budge, like a lazy teenager sleeping in and refusing to put out the rubbish. It makes me angry, it feeds my apathy and it destroys my creativity. It is the beast in my belfry. But it is not alone.

I have a Border collie puppy – 9 months old. She is great ….but…. at various times of the day she will bring in every raggedy toy from the garden and scatter them around the house, nibbling fuzzy bits of material or bright pink rubber off them, leaving an untidy trail around the house. She rips bark off the logs that we haven’t yet chopped, and munches it into millions of tiny bits on the carpet in the hall. She will wait until I have vacuumed every square inch of the house [which isn’t THAT often] then roll in every room, embedding black and white hairs – once more – into the carpet.

How, I ask you, am I supposed to ignore all of that? How am I supposed to nurture my creativity, feed my energy and take positive action when I so frustrated that I start eating my own hair!

These distractions are incredibly useful for allowing me to forgive myself for not doing the things that I planned to do. But, the truth is, they are but a few of the many similar obstacles that we have to overcome during our everyday lives. They won’t go away just because they irritate us. So we have to program ourselves to do the things that we want to do regardless of how much minutia lands on our laps.

The best thing to do is prioritize: -

•  Commit to a daily plan of action, and tick off the tasks as you complete them
• Write it down or create a goal map
• Accept things without resistance. For sure, that which you resist definitely persists, so stop trying to dodge the ‘bullets’ that try to take out your day
• Take time out before you get frustrated
• Keep your word to yourself – don’t let yourself down. If you tell yourself that you are going to do something, then make sure that you do it.
• Don’t beat yourself up – my puppy won’t be a puppy forever, and maybe I am missing out on these formative months of her life by moaning about the mess. I will endeavour to see the comical side to it and stop worrying about the hairs on the carpet
• Remember your dreams – when minutia hits, your dreams tend to frizzle into the background. Keep them alive every day by reaffirming to yourself that which is so important to you

Working from home is great, even at the price of distractions. When I am feeling blue I remind myself how lucky I am not to be sitting in an office from 9 -5 so many would love to be in your shoes, be their own boss and create their own agenda.

Take care

Jan

Over the years I have found many ways to help me to stay in balance, but the one I use most is an old indian tradition.

Imagine that you are standing in a circle. No one can pull you out of that circle, no person, no event, no experience. It is as if you are glued within it.

Now, any time that you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, emotional or experiencing any negative feelings, know that you have been pulled out of your circle.

The indian philosophy was that they would not step out of that circle to help anyone, unless that person asked for help. Too many times we rush to the aid of others, when
1. They haven’t asked for our help
2. We are not allowing them to learn from their own experiences.

It’s a brilliant technique that I am sure you will find usefull on this journey of life

Take care

Jan
Tel: 0800 634 3320

Stress is a word that we bandy about a lot these days, but how much are you aware of the scale of your own stress levels. If you are anything like me, you might tend to shove the stress in a cupboard and try to forget it is there.

But if you don’t tackle it, then it doesn’t go away. I feel that stress is symptomatic of an area, or areas, of your life that are not fulfilling on some level. It is very easy to get snagged up in our safety zones, doing what we feel we should be doing or what we are comfortable doing – and that doesn’t necessarily mean happy!

Stress produces negative chemicals in our bodies, one of which is cortisol. High levels of cortisol suppress the immune system and cause blood pressure to rise, which is obviously not a good thing.

Signs of stress might be some – hopefully not all – of the following: -

• Anger
• Frustration
• A sense of being overwhelmed
• A feeling of powerlessness
• A sense of vulnerability
• Irritation
• Disorientation
• Lack of focus
• Fear 
• Panic attacks
• Over reactive behaviour
• Not wanting to be around other people
• Poor sleep patterns
• Tiredness
• Lack of optimism
• Lethargy
• Apathy
• Low libido
• Various illnesses – stress weakens the immune system
• Addictive behaviour – this could be anything, and is purely used as a displacement process for the stress. For me it was too much chocolate and TV!

So what do you do?

• Face it, admit that you are stressed and don’t run away from it
• Take time out to ask yourself empowering questions such as, ‘What can I do to make myself feel more relaxed?’ or ‘what is it in my life that I am not happy with and what can I do to change it?’
• Tell someone you trust, how you are feeling
• Tell those that your behaviour might have an impact on {colleagues, management, partner etc}
• Work out what things help you to relax. For me it is running, being with my dogs and sharing fun and laughter with my fiancé and friends. For you, it might be a facial or a night out with your friends or partner, or a mini-break.
• Do the things that help you to relax!
• Create an action plan to deal with the stress. If the stress is work related, come up with ideas that might help the situation and run them by your superiors. This is far more effective than just complaining about stress, without offering some workable solutions
• If the stress is a personal issue, the prognosis is the same. For instance, trying to cover
  up grief can create a multitude of stress. Talk to someone that can help.
  

Stress can also be the subconscious mind trying to tell you that you are off the true path of
your life. You have to take the time to look inward in order to see where, how and why this stress is manifesting for you. Stress can also be the body’s way of saying, ‘hey, you are not taking care of me!!’ Ignore your body or your mind and, in time, they will catch you up and find a way of stopping you in your tracks.

I trained as a Laughter facilitator, because I had suffered a horribly long period of stress
following the death of my dad. It was one thing after another! That time, although it was hard, made me realise that I was miserable in some areas of my work life, so I set out to change it, and it was the best thing I ever did. Laughter smashes cortisol on its head and replaces it with feel good endorphins. You cannot be stressed it you are laughing, it just isn’t possible.

Take care

Jan
Tel: 0800 634 3320