I was listening to a recent podcast by Dr. John Delony this morning. I found a certain statement in today’s podcast very interesting.
“Rest can feel like stress if busyness is how you medicate.”
Yikes! That one hit home a bit. I have identified over the years how much I cannot sit still because I feel like I’m wasting the day, wasting time. There is always something to be done. Always! Ya, just a little bit of stress there. Part of it is because I’m the oldest child and the oldest children are doers. Partly because my parents have always worked very hard and I watched the importance of that in my family. Part of that is because I am a mother of 5 and darn it, you tell me when there is time to rest in that chaos! 🙂
The problem is you can only put up at that pace for so long. In fact, John talks about this very thing in his podcast. I enjoy listening to him because we share much of the same ideas, understanding, and philosophy on how the brain and body work together both for good and for “bad”.
Once you learn that your body is actually working for you, it stops working against you.
What do I mean by that exactly? Your body is sending you signals all the time. There is a constant relay of information from the world around you being sent to your brain that never shuts off. When your environment seems or is out of control your body will send you immediate signals that you need to start paying attention to the world around you and often times we can view these as bad. Headaches, upset stomach, and high blood pressure, to name a few.
We are hardwired this way from the moment we are born. If a baby isn’t being cared for it will cry. And the louder the need the louder the cry! As we get older that doesn’t change. The only difference is that we now have this fully developed brain that thinks it knows better. We often begin to ignore the signals our body is giving us at any given moment of the day.
Like now, my eye is twitching as I try and hurry to finish this post before my next client. Anything wrong with my eye? Nope! I’m just pushing my body and brain into full throttle to accomplish something in a short period of time.
So, what happens when we do this over and over and over again….push to the max, ignore the signals, drive harder, do better? Well, the signals get stronger. If I were to push at that level my body would begin to send me a new signal, likely a stronger signal, to get my attention. It may be a headache or an upset stomach.
If you’ve read my website at all, I talk about the pace I was running at for so long that I had developed nearly debilitating back pain that I carried 24/7. Why? Because I had adopted the understanding that rest was stress and I was medicating by staying busy. It’s that simple. Time, learning, and dare I say age, have certainly helped in this learning process. Pain has actually helped too. I am very grateful to this day for the pain I experienced. It finally got me to stop. Take a look at what I was doing in and with my life and understand there was a better way for me. A still productive but less stressful solution.
So as I wrap this blog up I will give props to my editor Lindsey who will make this look and sound eloquent. My question for you in the meantime is what signals is your body sending you? What solutions are an option? Do you feel stuck or hopeless? If so, that’s where I come in. Visit my website or give me a call and let me take what I’ve learned and share it with you. There is a better way and it’s all in your control. I’d love to hear your story! Reach out to groundedandgrowing.me.
Until then!
Ashley