Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Blog June Post 3

Sorry this post is a bit late but last night I was lucky enough to attend Sirens of the Seaboard - a special women's only dinner where local health professionals (women) spoke to us about women's health issues - specifically for those over 30.

The mantra for this post is: Life will (at times) knock you down.  It's okay to take a breather.

Last night that was one of the messages shared.  It is okay to be stressed out, emotional, and at times feel like you need to step off the world and take time to breathe.  It is normal.  Life is full of ups and downs.

While it may seem like every second person is being diagnosed with depression or anxiety - have these increased any since when our parents were younger.  They just didn't talk about it back then or diagnose it as depression etc.  Everything was fine.

So while today it seems like time is moving faster and things are changing quickly - is this causing us to be more stressed, depressed and anxious?

Those that fought for women to have equal employment and be able to go out and work full time - is working full time helping us to feel less stressed, depressed and/or anxious??  If you are feeling stressed, depressed and/or anxious - it might be a good time to look at your work situation and see if you can work part time to allow time for you to do more enjoyable pursuits (happiness helps you feel less stressed, depressed and anxious).  You might have to make some minor sacrifices but perhaps it's something to consider.  I know if my financial situation was different, I'd certainly love to be working part time - just to be more present for my family instead of rushing from one thing to the next.

The evening also talked about menopause, mental health and sexual health but I won't go into these other than to say all the information was very informative, and it was particularly good of the professional who spoke about sexual health to mention erotic fiction and that the local library has a good collection - I did then have to yell out "look for the lips" as in the lip sticker!!

It makes me think of how good it is in small communities for women to come together in forums like this and share serious information in a fun and enjoyable way!

Hopefully it will be a double post day and Ill have another post for you this evening!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Day 6 - Blog 12 Days of Christmas - Health!

Today's mantra: You are as important to your health as it is to you.

This really is a no brainer.  You are in control of your health so you are important.  And if you are not healthy then your life will suffer, therefore health is important.

Sometimes our health can let us down and no matter how hard we try to be healthy and get our health in order, outside influence etc can have an impact outside of our control.

That said, it is important that you work on the things you can control to assist you in being in good health.  Exercise, eating healthy food and keeping your mind active are all things you can do to ensure good health.

What things do you practice to ensure good mental health?  This is probably where I struggle a bit.  I can tend to stress out easily and need to practice some mindfulness techniques.  Some people have reached mindfulness when running - I'm yet to experience that.

I have a few things stuck up on my wall at my desk at work to do with wording things differently or changing words in your mind from negatives to positives to assist with stress or dealing with difficult situations.  I also have a list of "mantras" to think about regarding mindfulness.

I could go on but it is so hot that I can't really think too hard about anything.

So I leave it to you - how do you look after your health?

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Double Post Sunday or I was too busy drinking last night #blogjune #28 and #29

Ok, ok, yes I had a few drinks last night and I was too busy listening to tunes to write a blog post - but I'm here now!!

A cold start to the morning - thank goodness for the sleep in.

Yesterday was a brilliant day - well the morning and afternoon were - forget the grocery shopping in the middle as that is never brilliant!

Yes it was a cold start to the day (but not as cold as Friday morning) as we headed down to Nambucca Heads to a place called Jacks Ridge to do a 10km trail run.  I decided it would be good to try out the Camelback hydration pack that mum and dad had kindly given to me back in April.

The track is actually a mountain bike track.  Well maintained and a lot of fun.  Each part of the trail has a name - we started in the Rollercoaster (you can guess that it was basically up and down hills), then the squashed banana (not sure on that one), others were Lost Luggage, Found Your Suitcase, Boris (big log that you ride/run over), Mechanical Advantage etc.  These names made the run a bit more fun because you could discuss what you thought the name was alluding to or how the track would be laid out.

It is a good run for a group that has different paced runners, because the trail goes back on itself numerous times and you can pull of at any time and follow the main road back to the car park.

I had a great time and got warmed up after a while but cooled down quickly once I stopped running.  Basically it was a coolish morning but it warmed up to a lovely day.

Yesterday's mantra: Don't be pushed by your problems, be led by your dreams.

At the moment I'm feeling very pushed. I have things that I "have" to do in order to keep doing something (can't go into great detail here) but it isn't really something I "dream" of doing.  I've lost my passion for it and feel cheated that I am now having to do something in order to prove I know what I'm doing and keep doing what I do.  This thing has a deadline and it feels very unachievable at the moment and really is stressing me out.  I'm trying really hard to focus on positives and tell myself that I will get it done - but am just not feeling it.

I'm also sick of my mindset of self loathing.  Which leads into today's mantra: Turn "I wish" into "I will."  Instead of wishing I was happy with myself and the hard work I've done so far to get here, turn it into I will be happy or I am happy!!

Also my "I wish I was doing a full marathon" is going to be a "I will do a full marathon" and I am doing a full marathon - as soon as I know which one!!

Tomorrow sees the last post of #blogjune.  I will sort of miss it but not enough to continue it as consistently (or inconsistently) as I have been.  I think the process of evaluation and reflection are good practices and perhaps it is something I need to do more often especially on my professional life.  I'm still struggling to find my mojo in library world but perhaps more reflection is the way to go.  We will see how I feel once #blogjune is finished - you may see me pop on here a bit more often.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Double up Thursday #blogjune #25 and #26

This double up thing is starting to be a trend and it almost turned into a triple up because I'm really not in the right frame of mind to post tonight.

I've had one of those days.  It started off well with a good run with some lovely company in the freezing cold.  We ventured through the streets of town and my map on my GPS running log looked a lot like a drawing by Mr Squiggle.  We went up streets we hadn't been on before and discovered that our little town has more hills then we thought.

I then tried to warm up with rolled oats and honey and a hot milo.  How do you warm up at breakfast?

Off to work and I was to take a councillor on a tour of our libraries to talk about challenges we are facing so they are equipped to lobby for us in council meetings and to assist us to push our agenda to senior staff.  It was a lovely day but mentally draining.  I had a lovely lunch at the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre.  It was a good day.

Then I returned to the branch at 4.30pm to a bit of a state and a last minute roster change.  Stress levels high and this continued into the evening with some catch up work in the second job and trying to change some calendar bookings that didn't want to work.

Deep breath and I've finished what I needed to do and am now pumping this out before I crawl to bed.

Let's not forget the mantras:

Every positive thought propels you in the right direction.  Yep, this is something I'm working on as sometimes I get bogged down in the negative and really positive thoughts can bring good to you!!  If you think the negative will happen, it will.

When it doubt, work out.  Umm, not the right time to throw a workout in at the moment but I do know that when I exercise at lunchtime and I've had a particularly challenging morning, then I do come back fresh and ready to tackle the rest of the day.  And yes, sometimes a run can provide the answers!!

Now to go to bed to rest up as tomorrow is FITNESS TEST DAY!!!  Each month at bootcamp we have a different fitness test - tomorrow's is the 2.4km run.  This requires us to run around the 400m oval 6 times.

Ok, if you get me to run in a straight line 2.4km for a time trial - yep no problem!!  But around in circles - ahhhh!!  It is a psychological thing for me and circles seem to make it seem oh so much longer!  But I will tackle it head on!  Goodnight!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Is the grass greener?

Ok, so I'm haven't been posting to my blog at least once a week.  Honestly, so far this year I'm feeling flat.  Usually on return from the Christmas/New Year break, I am excited and revitalised about work and the year to come.  I'm ready to launch into planning heaps of exciting activities and seeking out opportunities to promote the library.

This year, it's not happening.  Each morning I wake up thinking this is the morning my motivation will return.  This is the morning I'll feel a skip in my step and anticipation for the day ahead.  Nope - not happening.

I'm not quite sure if I can pinpoint just one reason as to why this is happening.  I mean, I took a longer break and I didn't fill my break with drives to Qld which normally exhaust me and make me feel I really haven't had a break. No this holiday I relaxed and I spent lots of time at the beach and quality time with my family.  So it's not because I didn't have a good holiday.

I think it might be a combination of things.  Currently I don't have enough relief staff so I am constantly on edge that someone is going to get sick and we'll have no one to back fill.

One of my long term, highly organised staff members is off sick, so it has been hard to pick up the things that they would normally do without thinking.

I'm also involved in another project at work that I'm having an internal battle trying to devote time to - also trying to get my head around exactly how to tackle it and get it done in the very tight deadline is stressful.  I'm also supposed to be able to pull myself out of my day job to complete this - but that brings me back to the lack of relief staff.

Other things that may be at play are the fact that I do keep an eye on what jobs are going in the library industry and often find a job that I think would be much better than the one I'm in now - be it to be closer to family and friends, less responsibility, higher pay, better conditions, etc.  So there have been a few that have come up recently that I have thought maybe I should go for them.  But in reality I'm probably only trying to run away from this situation and is the grass really greener elsewhere?!?

I am coming up to having been in this job for 5 years.  In the past I always had a 3 year rule - no more than 3 years in the same job.  However, since having a child and she is in school, I have longed for somewhere to be long term.  To be in the same place so that we don't have to move and Miss A doesn't have to change schools and I'll actually get to get one of those certificates saying I've been in an organisation for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years etc.  To actually be somewhere long enough to make some big changes or go through some big changes and come out the other side better than before.

That said, there are some big changes happening - restructure, possible (probably more like inevitable) changes to local government models/boundaries in NSW, the never ending battle for funding.  And for me that creates a feeling of uncertainty.  What happens if my job no longer exists - what then?

Of course, I then kick myself for being worried about something that has not happened yet.

So I'm sorry for this post being so personal and probably a bit depressing, but I felt I had to write down how I am feeling and see if it gives me a light at the end of the tunnel moment.

And perhaps it has, because when I drive to work this morning and I go over the river and past the beautiful scenery which may be a bit muddy and wet at the moment, I'm sure to feel lucky to live here.  And if I think about what we did over the holidays - is it really so bad that I should give up this lifestyle??  Is it really as bad as it seems??

Honestly, I think I'm just going through a phase but I really hope that it hurry's up and passes me by.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Back to the grind

Well I promised at least one blog post a week and what a good time to do it when I've been back at work 2 days and am about to launch into my first whole week back at work.

Yesterday's Destiny Card was Fun and I'm going to leave it as my card for today as well.

The family and I had loads of fun yesterday morning at the beach.  We spent over an hour splashing in the waves before returning home for a prawn and lettuce roll.  After that we kicked back and relaxed.  I caught up with the news via Library Press Display and checked FB and twitter.

I finished the day with my usual hour long afternoon walk and returned home soaked in sweat.  It was pretty humid yesterday, in fact it has been pretty humid/hot the last week or so - which I'm not complaining about but it doesn't make for an attractive Sharon when I go walking.

Unfortunately, today I suspect I won't have much fun.  On Thursday and Friday last week some things happened at work which have caused me some stress.  In fact, in usual Sharon fashion I have not slept well since because my brain keeps churning over these issues when I'm trying to sleep.  This is why I promised I would not think about work while on leave.

Today, I hope a meeting I have planned will give me some options to deal with one of the issues which unfortunately, involves a person.

I'm going to admit here that I have some things to learn when it comes to dealing with people's behaviour and because I'm an emotional person (at times), I really have to learn to detach myself and not let my emotions get the better of me.

The other issues are a result of possible change that is really out of my control.  Silly really to be stressing over something that may or may not happen and you can't control it anyway.  So that is another area I have to work on - only stress over what you can control - well don't stress over it, just deal with it!!

It hasn't really been a positive start to the working year for me and I hope this week ends on a much more positive note than last week.

And if anyone has any advice on how to detach oneself in order to stop letting emotions take over - I'd love to hear it!!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Blog December Post 12 - It's one of those days

I must admit, I'm a bit stumped about what to write today.

I could ask those that read this blog - what would you like to see me write about?

Anyway, instead I will bore you with how frustrating my day was yesterday.  You may remember that I predicted that this week would be stressful.  It makes me wonder why I take leave, as when I return there is so much work to do.  And I had only 3 days off this time!!

So yesterday was frustrating for a number of reasons but I suppose I really can't go into them because some are political, and some regard the lack of space on the shelves for books which is causing me no end of frustration as I have weeded and weeded and weeded - so I may just have to purchase new shelves which is not an easy task at this time of year.

I also ended the day with another one of our public computers going stupid.  And due to our limited IT staff, I know we will most likely have to wait a while before it is fixed - with school holidays coming up it will cause extra stress filling bookings - can't wait to get a computer booking system.

Then I got home and found that we have only received one calendar that my daughter had made at school (the students draw a picture and then they put it on a calendar) when I had ordered 3.  So today I have to chase up the school about it.

They had the school presentation "night" on yesterday "afternoon" at 5.30pm.  My bug bear about that is what about parents that work - I don't get home till around 6pm so never get to go to school functions.  Yes I could have tried to leave early but as mentioned above, yesterday was one of those days where that wasn't going to happen - unfortunately, most days are like that.

Then my last bug bear of the day was when I ordered some books from a particular online ebook shop and they are in ePub format.  However, they won't load onto Bluefire Reader on my tablet.  All other ePub books from other online shops do but not from this shop - the files come across as ACSM (I think that is the file format).  I am stumped and I can add that to another ebook frustration of mine!

So let's all toast our coffees, teas or milos to a better day today!!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Blog December Post 11 - Back to work

I'm heading back to work today after an extended weekend - I  had Thursday and Friday off last week, and yesterday off this week as my parents were down from Qld.

Due to the connected nature of the world today, I incidently read work emails while on leave.  This has enlightened me to the fact that this week may turn into a particularly stressful week.

There is some library politics going on, I have a staff member on sick leave and there may be issues around their return to work, and I may have to do some IT stuff that I really don't have time to do.

I've seen a few comments on Twitter about how the days leading up to Christmas always end up stressing people out - well it looks like it will be true in my case.

That said the positives about the coming weeks are:
  • I only have 9 working days left until I'm on leave for 2 and half weeks
  • The work Secret Santa party is on this week
  • The work Christmas party is on next week
  • I will have a Monday to catch up on everything
  • I will have half hour with the teachers from a local school to share information about their local library and how it can assist them with teaching and leisure
  • I will have a last day of work before Christmas - which is always a lot of fun!!