Learning to make time for myself.. the hard way

I normally live life as hard as I can. living by mottos such as "you only live once" and "live each day as if it was your last". 

I work hard and boy do I play hard. Most days I feel like a duck- calmly gliding on the surface but paddling like crazy underneath. But recently my duck forgot how to swim and started drowning.

Living this way 100% of the time is not sustainable and sometimes it all gets too much to cope with. You have to take time to slow down and let everything catch up. Although this makes sense in theory, personally I find the reality REALLY hard. If I'm not doing something productive I feel like I am wasting time and that I am a failure. 

If you train hard, you will know that rest periods are as important as training if you want to make any gains. The idea is that by stressing your body (training) you break it down, then when you rest it rebuilds itself bigger, faster and stronger so that next time you put it under stress it won't break. Without the rest part of this equation we end up injured and unable to cope under load. 

Now the same idea could apply to our daily lives. Stress can be good as it is innate response designed to allow us to save our lives when we are about to be eaten by a lion. It occurs through activation of the fight or flight response which provides a boost of energy (by increasing heart and breathing rates to provide more oxygen), faster decision making and concentration. 

BUT it's not good all the time! While we are in the fight or flight mode, our digestive system, healing and immune system are all de-prioritized. All our energy is directed towards running away from that lion that is about to eat us! When you are about to be eaten, things like healing and going to the toilet are really not important. However, at some point they need to happen, we can't stay in this stressed state forever. 

Despite plenty of warning signs (which I ignored) I kept pushing myself to get through 2 postgraduate papers, full time work, and keeping up with adrenalin filled recreation activities (kitesurfing, mountain biking... etc). 

A few weeks ago (without permission) my body decided it had had enough of this, fast paced, lifestyle and I got sick and had to spend a few days at home.

Health is more then just being physically well, it encompasses mental, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as well. When one of these is out of balance then it can flow over and affect the others. Although I was physically heathy I experienced physical symptoms as the rest of "me" was out of balance. Being a physical person this was what finally forced me to slow down.

Moral of the story is that perhaps it's better to have all your ducks in a row, instead of one frantically swimming! 

Listen and be aware of the warning signs before you crash. It can be counter intuitive but ultimately you will lose less if you take a little bit of time to recover rather then completely burning out and taking days.

Remember - you are the most important project you will ever work on and if your not in a good space you won't be able to help others