After a couple of physically and emotionally stressful weeks, following the death of my father-in-law, it was not a surprise that virtually the whole family, including me, has been ill during half term. Nothing serious, just heavy colds, coughs and running a temperature – generally feeling ‘yukk’.
Although not pleasant, it has forced us to just surrender to some gentle healing time and not try to do too much. In letting go of the plans I had, I noticed I felt some weight lift, which I hadn’t consciously realised had been there; I’d started to get caught in a little vortex of feeling obligations, duty and ‘must do’s’. I’d just been holding things a little too tightly and trying too hard.
When I let go, breathe and reconnect to what I want to do, rather than feel I ought to do, everything just flows so much more easily (even when I’m not 100% well), and I feel much more in control; it’s that control paradox I’ve written about before.
It’s also been a useful underlining that, as Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz write in their book On Form, it’s managing energy, not time, that’s the key to performance, health and happiness.
We simply can’t be ‘on’ all the time, and recovery is essential, not an optional extra!
