Tired, Overwhelmed and Exhausted? Time to Adjust those Boundaries.

27 Jan

Thanks Kinga Cichewicz for this great photo found at Unsplash

This busy world demands a lot from us. Of our time, attention and energy and nowhere more so than in our professional lives. Whether you are a founder or team member you undoubtedly have people and tasks ‘pulling’ at you from the moment you wake up, to the moment you go to bed.

There is a lot to get done. And there's only 24hours to do them all. Start the clock…. Feeling stressed already?

Our longer days take a toll on our physical body and our finite energy. We need to become aware and then savvy to protect ourselves, our health and well-being; mentally, physically and emotionally.

Boundaries, internally and externally, create a dividing line of keeping things in and keeping things out.
When we let too much in, we become overloaded - imagine a boat taking on too much water, it sinks.
And when we let too much out, we become empty - imagine a hollow cave, barren and lifeless.

Healthy boundaries allow us to set something in the middle, a place that takes care of what is important inside and (politely where possible) protects against the unnecessary outside - imagine a mother holding her baby.

Healthy boundaries move, shift, expand and contract. Life is constantly changing; your Monday morning is likely very different from your Saturday evening and therefore the needs of your bodymind are different. Mastering healthy boundaries requires us to be conscious of the demands we are facing and autonomous to adapt as needed.

A sure marker that your boundaries are not set right is the general feeling of exhaustion - from doing too much (taking on) and not getting enough back (giving out) affecting our energy, mood and motivation for life.

When feeling like this, it normally calls for a review of your current lifestyle or situation to understand which areas need more protection inwards and what need to be rejected outwards.

The takeaway: Use your bodymind as a tool and instrument to track your energy levels.

When you become exhausted perhaps from a period of time (an upcoming deadline), an event (attending work conference), or a person (a colleague that offloads on you) each draining your energy, take this (low) indication as a trigger to:

pause.
make sense of the situation.
readjust as needed.

Further to this, make sure you take extra good care of yourself before, during and after until you are back to full health and energy.

Bodymind - is a term used to describe the connection between our body and our mind. They are ultimately connected, work and communicate together and are impossible to separate. Your mental, physical and emotional body are ONE and impactive of each other at all times.

If you are curious to try a body exercise to help understand and support boundary setting, feel free to try this one.