Taking 3 months off work has given me a lot of time. At first, I thought I'd fill that time to the brim with productive things. Make the most of my time off. Have a lengthy running list of all the useful stuff I had done over that time. Then I stopped.
The first 2.5 weeks of my leave of absence from work was spent sleeping and getting every possible virus going around. Apparently this happens when you stop running on adrenaline and slow your life down - your poor body crashes. Hopefully it only crashes and doesn't burn. In my case this was just a speedbump. Within no time, I was sleeping 8+ hours and eating regularly. With exercise and a conscious effort to slow my life down, things are starting to look up.
Who would have thought that slowing down was going to be so difficult?
It is difficult. It is hard. Stopping and taking the time to be mindful.
Meditation is helping. Leaving my normal environment and visiting supportive people has been encouraging.
What do I miss now?
I miss doing technical stuff - writing code and talking about technology and design.
I miss my kittehs - still in Sydney doing some human-sitting with a friend.
I miss my clothes - but I'm buying some great tropical stuff up here.
Life is wonderful.
3 comments:
I will be taking a complusory sabatical as well in a weeks time. I wonder if I can slow down also. I picture also being in bed for at least the first 2 weeks as the body adjusts.
I hope you slowly begin to relax more during your three month break. I will be taking my unintended leave from employment very shortly after a stressful 2 years. I know the first month is going to be tough. The first 2 weeks I am dreading.
Hmmm, You're making me wonder if this is what I need too. Went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and it was ... well ... less than pleasant.
What price do we put on sleep? What payoff do we attribute to stress? How much is too much? How long before the body starts to scream "Stop!"?
How to make the decision between a forceful stop - an enforced decline to every invitation for a quarter of a year or more - and a lifetime of medication? Popping a pill daily is easy, but no match for unmedicated health.
Thanks for the post, Mana. You rock my world :)
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