What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for? Obvious, when we think about it. We’re busy. We’re looking after business… family… health. But are we?
Where is the balance in your life?
Try this. Place segments in a circle with each segment relative to the percentage of time you devote to the things you engage in. How do the segments containing ‘YOU’ and your ‘interests’ and ‘wellbeing’ – doing the stuff that is healthy and that ‘floats your boat’ compare to the segment percentages containing work, money, relationships, etc.
You can be selfish in a positive way!
More than this though is our reliance on shouldering burdens because we can. This resilience is all well and good when life is purring along, but just as with your car, you can provide preventative maintenance – or just wait for the problem to appear and take your chances.
The most common theme amongst those seeking help in counselling is the perception of reaching personal or professional crisis. We wait until we feel bad enough, reach the tipping point and our emotional ‘bucket’ is full. Performance and relationships are affected, creativity, motivation and a sense of ‘less than’ prevail.
It is our survival instinct and our guilty pleasure because when we are challenged, pushed, and harried we have the adrenaline to force us through that difficult meeting, chore, or even to cope in our relationship. It allows us to continue despite the true desire to stop or alter our course.
The common outcome of sustaining this behaviour is painful and protracted and affects your relationships with those around you at work – and at play. Becoming ever less tolerant and more snappy; or appearing to be okay, bottling up and ‘ suppressing’ your feelings, making you physically as well as emotionally ‘sick’.
Here’s a shocker! It is unnecessary to be the wrong side of 5/10 in the stress, happiness, anxiety, performance and relationship scores (10 being negative!) to devote time and energy for you! Because this is the positive selfishness you can allow and afford yourself.
Why is this positively selfish?
As well as demonstrating love, care, and value for you, those around you will benefit too! You and your performance and creativity can improve; interactions with loved ones – and in business improve; your general physical and emotional health improves.
We all know this, so here is the call to action.
Discover your self care benchmark either with an exercise such as the one above, or with one of your own. If you discover you are somewhat out of balance, commit to devoting an activity to yourself; be that finding an impartial ‘listener’, re-starting a hobby or interest from the past, or starting something you have always meant to do.
Engage a therapy you have enjoyed or benefited from previously – or try something new. *Whispers* – It doesn’t mean you are weak or have failed – it means you have succeeded!
Our Counselling And Therapy Services
Our posts are created to provide useful and supportive information, covering a variety of relevant topics. If anything you have read here resonates and you would like to explore the possibility of working one-to-one with either Bob Brotchie or Penni Osborn, please do get in touch.
Our therapy rooms in Kentford, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 are a comfortable and judgment-free place to meet where we offer warm, unconditional counselling and therapy support. If you are unable to meet in person, we can offer the same service online, anywhere in the world, via secure platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet. Together, we can talk things through and find solutions to problems and relief from difficult emotions that may be getting in the way of a peaceful and meaningful life.
If you’d like to know more, visit our FAQ’s or contact us for an informal chat – without obligation – to see how we may be able to help.
Bob Brotchie is a counsellor, mindset consultant and creator of "Conscious Living by Design"™. He writes for Anglia Counselling, is featured on various other websites and introduces us to many guest writers all covering topics related to mental health and wellbeing.
Bob provides bespoke counselling services to individuals and couples in the privacy and comfort of a truly welcoming environment at his Anglia Counselling company office, located near Newmarket in Suffolk, England. Bob also provides professional online counselling, for local, national, and international clients. The therapeutic models offered are bespoke to the client’s needs, especially those in receipt of 'childhood emotional neglect' (CEN), whilst integrating a mindful approach to psychotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) principles. For clients experiencing trauma and/or phobia, Bob offers EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing).