I didn’t write last week. I was traveling on the weekend, and exhausted on Monday. I felt a bit guilty about it, because I had made a commitment to write at least one post every week.
Instead I slept in, I took a bath, I read, I did a little homework. In short, I was taking care of myself and recharging my batteries.
I just finished reading Kevin Sorbo’s autobiography, True Strength. In it, he tells about his brush with death. An aneurysm in his shoulder caused three strokes in short order. He went from being an active, driven over-achiever to having to rest and take it easy. He shares how difficult it was for him to admit his weaknesses, ask for help, and do nothing. And what a huge realization it was for him that resting was actually doing something.
I could relate to his story in a lot of ways. I am an over-achiever in many ways. My friends often comment that they don’t know how I do all the things I do. Sometimes I don’t even know how I do it. And sometimes I need to take time to rest. I don’t always remember to do that, though. Quite often I push myself to exhaustion. I keep going until my body forces me to rest by getting sick.
I’m almost ready for the Spring Mysteries Festival – I’ve been preparing since the beginning of January. There are a few things I have left to finish, and a little bit of memorization left. I’m very excited to have a part, and I am truly enjoying the process. Yet there is still a small part of me that is starting to look forward to it being over – to have one less responsibility.
I’ve taken on a lot this spring. I don’t regret any of it. And I’m ready to set some of them down. I hate to admit it, especially to myself, but I’m not a superhero. I’m a mortal, and I have limits. I’m pushing those limits right now. I’m dancing on the edge. It’s good to know where my (energetic) boundaries are.
What about you? Do you know where your boundaries are? How do you find them? And how do you know when you’ve crossed them?
Blessings,
Mary
It’s so good that you recognized when you needed rest and then made the choice to rest. Too often I acknowledge that I need a break yet don’t actually take one. I’ll keep going like that until my body forces me to stop. I’m pretty sure my body thinks I’m quite dense. 😉
I’ve learned a LOT over the past six months about my energetic boundaries. For years I kept wondering why I couldn’t do as much as I did when I was in college. People around me said it was only natural, that we lose energy as we get older. But that philosophy has never sat well with me. There are plenty of people decades older than me who have boundless energy. So why can’t I keep up with my younger self?
It’s not health; I’m in far better shape now than in my junk-food-crazed youth. It’s not excessive responsibilities; I’ve always had a healthy dose of responsibilities to attend to. So what could it be? I asked myself over and over. Fed up with the density between my ears, the universe provided the answer.
I haven’t had a lack of energy. Far from it. But I have been directing my energy to the wrong things. The universe removed one of those things from my life (in this case, an energy draining job), and suddenly I had more energy than I knew what to do with. Then, because I need to be hit over the head a couple times before something really sinks in, the universe put a new but very similar job in my path. Within days I was feeling the massive energy drain again. I learned my lesson, and I’ve found a brand new job that should be an energy booster.
And that’s when it hit me. I had so much energy in college because I loved EVERYTHING I did. I poured my energy everywhere, and every activity gave me energy back. I didn’t waste my time on anything that drained me. So I’m taking a cue from my younger self and making changes in my life to create energy all around.
What a fantastic realization, Karen! And good for you for following up on it, too.
A lot of what I do outside my working hours might be considered draining, and yet it fills me up in a way, too. That’s why I keep doing it. 🙂