Has this ever happened to you?
Your day starts out neat and tidy, but hour after hour things just seem to spiral out of control:
An urgent e-mail comes in, your boss wants to see you, your neck starts hurting, your partner asks you to pick up groceries on the way home and the one deadline you‘ve been grinding to meet is nearing every hour.
Panic sets in. Frustration ensues. Why, why, why me, why now.
What follows is a wave of negative emotions, a sensation of heaviness, suffrage and desperation. The more you think of it, the worse it gets, and you start seeing the rest of your day through a lens of negativity.
Let‘s call this aspect of your personality „the sufferer“. All the sufferer feels is pain and powerlessness, he goes in circles complaining to anyone and everyone about the things he cannot change.
What if there was a way to escape this loop? Let‘s talk about another aspect of your personality: „the caretaker“.
The caretaker is loving, patient, relaxed and most of all – understanding. He‘s like the mother or father of the inner child that lives in all of us. Even on days that we don‘t get the positive reaffirmation we seek from our peers and colleagues, this inner caretaker can provide it for us.
In practice, this means cancelling plans or taking the rest of the day off when you‘re hitting your limits. Not because you‘re weak or lazy, but because a stable mood and clear thoughts are the number one factor for efficient work.
What’s the point of sinking two more hours into a lost-cause task when you could spend that time efficiently taking care of yourself and making sure you‘re back on track, mentally and physically, before you try completing any more tasks. Sometimes its better to cross a deadline than to deliver a bad result born out of frustration.
Selfcare is not a luxury. It‘s a necessity. Without it, the loop of frustration and agony will intensify and carry on to the next hours and days.
So here‘s a little task for everyone: next time you feel „the sufferer“ taking hold of you – let „the caretaker“ embrace him with open arms. Be there for yourself. Take a break, give yourself a pat on the back and simply focus on recovering. You‘ll be surprised how much faster you‘re back on track!