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Showing posts with label breathing techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breathing techniques. Show all posts

Friday, 31 October 2014

Letting go

It's the weekend! Hooray! I'm definitely starting to feel better. I took my hot water bottle to work yesterday and today and didn't use it once. I've continued to take the Buscopan, and probably will do so at least tomorrow and maybe the next couple of days. I find it hard to switch off, and I can definitely see myself stressing about work next week whilst I'm off. As well as not switching off well, I find it hard to let go of my work. I had a really productive day today - basically because we had to! I had to make sure everything was handed over, and I think we got there. Now I'm just hoping that the next part of the project happening next week goes well. Even though I've passed it on, I still worry about it as it was my work and I will always fret about whether I've done everything I needed to, and whether I've done it properly. I need to remember that it's now with someone else, and that that person is very competent, and that if I've missed something she will pick it up, the same way I would if our roles were reversed. For next week at least, it's not mine to worry about.

It's difficult. Letting go of something that you've invested yourself in is not easy. It's hard not to dwell on things. When you've spent a lot time and effort on something, you want to see it through, make sure it's done properly and in a way, gain closure by completing it. Unfortunately, life doesn't work like that, and neither does my job. It's therefore incredibly important that I find some way of letting go.

There must be ways of learning to let go of things. I intend to try the following:

  • reminding myself that my colleagues are amazing, so the project is in good hands
  • lots of fresh air and exercise, time with family and activities so that I forget about work completely
  • breathing techniques if I do start thinking about work - concentrating on breathing in and out, and pushing work thoughts out of my mind
  • trusting people - it fits with the first point really - reminding myself that it won't fall apart without me
  • if I do end up stressing, putting things into perspective and thinking 'what's the worst that could happen?'. You know what? It's not that bad.
Aside from all of that, I intend to focus on the positive things - a week off, seeing my wonderful family, spending time with my amazing other half, doing fun things, hopefully playing board games, eating out... So whilst enjoying my week off, I hope to learn better how to let go. After all, I don't actually need more responsibility at work - I have enough of that already - so I'm going to try to see letting go of bits of work as a blessing.

And relax...

Thursday, 30 October 2014

A little better

Today I feel a little better. The pain and nausea haven't been anywhere near as big a problem as they have been recently. I'm not really sure whether that's down to taking the medication, my swim, actually stressing less or because I only have one more day left at work before a week off (hooray!).

I woke up in the night and immediately started thinking about the work I had to do. Somehow, I managed to use the meditation techniques from the class last week and concentrate only on my breathing. It really helped me to relax and drift back to sleep, so I'll definitely be putting that into practice more often. The things I was worrying about weren't even things I desperately had to do today, though I do need to do them tomorrow!

Work is crazy busy. I sit down to work on something and my phone rings, I get called away to help other people, I get interrupted by people asking questions... it goes on. I really don't mind helping other people - it's good to share knowledge - but it makes it difficult to get on with my own work at times. I'm going to try to get there slightly early tomorrow so that I can plan my day properly before work really begins. That should hopefully set me in good stead for the rest of the day. Fingers crossed.

Planning is just essential for me if I want to avoid stress, or at least reduce it. It isn't easy, and even if I do manage to form a good plan, it's likely that it won't run as I intend it to. Somehow it's just a case of prioritising as much as possible and, if completely necessary, asking people to get help elsewhere.

I feel more positive though. We will get there.