You know that feeling when you realise you’ve taken on too much?

Well I’m having it. 

I won’t bore you with the list, but suffice to say that in a currently full to capacity life I decided to take on more. 

Oh yea!

Taken on too much

Yes I’ve taken on too much. No-one made me. I conjured the idea up all on my own. Now it’s true that, at the time, I had not known about my Mum’s house sale and the need to empty it ( she’s in a Nursing home). This involves an added dimension of to-do I could not have factored in. However, despite all that I still allowed the part of me that seems to think I’m some sort of super women to get the upper hand.

Why am I telling you all this?

I am assuming some of you may do the same. Not only do you take on too much, you then actually attempt to do it. Juggling this ever increasing number of have to, must, should and ought you end up frazzled and a bit freaked out. Your diet goes to pot, you stop exercising, your sleep…..well need I say more.

Jettison Something

I’m here to tell you to jettison something, to say no to it, to let it go and to release yourself from the burdens you carry. I’m here to advocate this Radical Self Care act because I have just decided to do so for myself.

In my first Radical Self care newsletter I proudly announced several workshops I would be hosting over the next few months.

Well………… not any more. 

Bloody Brilliant

Am I daft of something, a crazy woman? Yes and no. Yes because I still haven’t learned how to pace myself as well as I would like to and no because instead of sticking with the plan I am doing something about it. Thankfully sanity has had her say and I am now cancelling all the workshops I had planned for the rest of this year. 

“And how does that feel Mairi?” 

“Bloody brilliant.”

Soldiered on

In the past I would have felt embarrassed, ashamed even, at being seen to have “made a mistake”, to have said I’d do something and then to change my mind. I would have soldiered on resentfully, felt harassed, stressed and probably unable to cope.

NO MORE.

Why would I do that to myself? 

One human being

Like you, I am only one human being and we are limited. When we try to do too much guess what? We suffer and very likely those around us suffer too as they encounter the rough end of our stress reactions. 

In stress a multitude of chemical reactions go off in our bodies and let me tell you this, it’s not a good idea to let that happen for very long because it will start to take a toll you may have to pay for later on.

I know only too well about that and have no intentions of going back there. Reclaiming wellness from a stress damaged mind and body is work, hard work so….

DON’T GO THERE.

Official permission

I am officially giving you permission to cancel, to decline, to say no, to leave it till later or whatever needs to happen so that you start to place your health and happiness higher up the list.

Save yourself and save those around you by learning to practice self care at a whole other level, 

That’s RADICAL!

Do it anyway

Ok so I know it won’t necessarily feel that great. When I first started doing an about-turn on things I’d committed to I felt awful, but I did it anyway. The more you practice the better you will get at it, and eventually you will value your sanity and health so much you just won’t be willing to put yourself through that level of stress again. 

Then it will also feel bloody brilliant for you. You, too can say:

“Hey, I got it wrong, I thought I could do more than I can. I can’t and I’m doing something about it”.

Save your energy

It’s empowering, it gives you energy back and it’s what the world needs. As more and more of us practice Radical Self Care our focus changes. Instead of running ourselves ragged focusing on too many things at once, stretching ourselves to the limit and beyond trying to do too much, we draw back. We save that energy for ourselves and then……

We fill our cup

As we fill our cup, as we give back to ourselves a strange thing begins to happen. We find we are re-energised but the focus is different. This time we have something amazing to share with the world. Our energy and enthusiasm for the things we feel passionate about starts to flow and we begin to share that in the world. This is RADICAL SELF CARE in action.

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