Are you listening to the warning signs?

Life is busy. I get it. But sometimes you need to create the space to slow down.

An essential part of life is managing your energy and taking time to rest. It’s when we are constantly on the go that things can start to go wrong.

Life provides us with plenty of warning signs when it’s time to slow down– we start making silly little mistakes at work, we drink a bit more coffee or alcohol than usual, we might not be sleeping so well.

My dentist told me recently she has fitted more mouth guards during the last two years than in the previous fifteen. That’s a big warning sign for those people.

I like the metaphor of the feather, the brick and the truck. Small problems are feathers, mid-sized problems are bricks, HUGE problems are trucks that can steamroll you.

Last year my friend Jodie was burning the candle at both ends. She had a full-time job, a part time business she was trying to grow, and a busy family life with a husband, teenagers and a sick parent she was
supporting.

The universe – and her body – was sending her a lot of signs that she needed to slow down. The two biggies she noticed were that she wasn’t sleeping well, and she was drinking a lot more coffee than usual to get through the day. These signs were some of her feathers.

Her brick happened when she slipped over and broke her ankle.

Now you might think that this would be enough for her to slow down, but no, it was not. She had one day on the couch after her surgery, and then got straight back into her hectic life. She was exhausted and she continued to push through.

Does this sound familiar?

About a month after breaking her ankle she caught Covid and was knocked flat. She told me she was shocked at how much she was affected, and that she couldn’t actually get out of bed for a week, and it was another two weeks before she felt even a little like her old self.

She hadn’t heeded the warnings of the feathers and the brick, so along came the Covid truck. And a week of enforced rest.

This gave Jodie the wakeup call she needed to make a few changes in her life, so she had more time for herself. She has now created space to regularly rest, and she has set some boundaries around helping others so she can prioritise herself more.

What are the feathers in your life? And are you listening to the warning signs?