Bleeding to death
Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wholeness. A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death. ~ Frederick Buechner
Do you ever feel like you are overdoing it?
Lately, I have felt that way so often, that I stopped doing everything! Yikes.
One thing I realized
One thing that I realized over the long fourth of July weekend a couple of weeks ago is that the stress of thinking about going back to work freezes me up!
I did nothing on any of my websites (well, I thought about them, but that doesn't count, does it?). I kept thinking about having to go back to work Monday. The more I thought about it, the more stressed out I became. The more stressed out I became, the less I did.
This, of course, made me really feel desperate to quit my job. I texted my spouse repeatedly to try to come up with ways I could do that. (We didn't come up with anything!)
Another thing I realized
I also realized something else. When I stress out like that, I find myself experiencing depression. I know that depression is something many of us here at WA experience (is it because we are creatives?), so I don't feel alone when I mention it. I'm not using this as an excuse for doing nothing, for helping no one and for neglecting my own health. It is just an observation I made.
I stayed home all day yesterday
I took a "sick day" yesterday. I wasn't really physically ill, I was just down in the dumps. I tried to do too many things and ended up doing myself in.
When I read the quote at the beginning of this post, I knew that I needed to reevaluate a few things in my life.
First, the facts
- I want to help others.
- I need to help others.
- I also need to help my family and myself.
- I can't do everything.
- I can do some things.
- I need to let some things go...
Something we can all learn
We all have things we need to let go of. Many of us like to help each other, but sometimes we have to ease up on that especially if we are carrying around a lot of other "burdens".
I have decided I am not going to fret about whether I am an ambassador at WA. I enjoyed it and if it happens again just through the natural spirit of helping others and writing posts as it did last time, great! If not...I am okay with that, too.
I know that I can help far more people through my diabetes website and my WA promotion site and that is really why I am all-in at WA in the first place.
Being all-in means giving it my all, but also pulling back from some things including doing so much on the WA site itself.
I love this community, but I have to go where I can offer the most help and be the most productive. Right now, that happens to be on my two major sites.
I have a lot to say, though, so I will also continue to post here, but at a slower frequency.
Have a great weekend everyone!!
Best wishes,
Karin :)
Recent Comments
29
Thank you for posting this Karin. Nobody should put themselves in the position of making themselves ill.
Derek
Your post made me realize one thing. I am taking the weekend off. Little stress-relieving yard work, fire up the grill, have a couple of cold ones, and take the dogs for a picnic at the dogpark. My brain needs a break.
Thanks for sharing.
Mark
It's important to look after you first. You cannot help others if you don't.
We cannot do everything, although we try. Sometimes we have to choose what is more important.
I too am stepping back a little to try and focus on my website and the training. We do what we can.
Take care Karin.
I try to help as much as I can too. But ultimately, my 1st priority has to be building my business. So the majority of my efforts go there.
It's good that you're prioritizing where you need to so you can get back on track!
Karin, you need to look after YOU. I suffer from chronic depression and anxiety (which my psychiatrist has defined into several different disorders). Your post struck a real note with me.
I, too, want to help others and so many times in the past I have completely over extended myself and suffered burn out. Its exactly as you describe - I completely freeze and can accomplish nothing.
Please do not feel bad about not being an ambassador. You are obviously pushing yourself too hard. I have no doubt that you will continue to post and help others but PLEASE do not put yourself through the stress of feeling you MUST do so much all of the time. This will just make yourself, your family, your health and your work on your own web sites suffer.
PLEASE try to eat properly as this really does make a difference and also take a while for yourself each day to do some "self care". Walk AWAY from the keyboard and just do something that makes YOU feel good, no matter what it is. And don't you DARE let ANYBODY (including you!) feel bad about taking time out for yourself!
If you don't look after yourself and your own mental health, who else will? You hang in there and know that you are right - that there are quite a few kindred souls on here that can totally relate to what you are going through.
All of my love to you!
See more comments
I think I can help more people by helping myself first. To that end, my health is important as is my family.
I could spend more time on the WA site and move my rank much higher than it is. But I don't. For me, it is all about balance and not burning myself out trying to do too much.
I am a type II diabetic. I am asymptomatic because I watch what I eat. I think your focus should be on your health site. You can help more people that way.
Just my thoughts.