It has been a busy and unsettling few years at Stav Towers and although I've not coped badly, I'm more than aware it's about time to try and find some balance in my life. The key changes have been...
- Redundancy part 1 2016 after 16 years in the same place of work
- Moving house 2017 after 39 years in one place
- Over working 2018 with 60 - 80 hour weeks
- Redundancy part 2 2018 after 20 months
With the above have come some bad habits...
- Bad sleep patterns, 5 - 6 hours a night
- Being snappy
- Not exercising
- Eating badly
- Drinking too much
- Not fulfilling my own targets in relation to hobbies and professional/self improvement
So, I'm digging out Headspace once again.
Headspace is an App to aid mindfulness. Wikipedia covers what this is better than I could in my own words but in summary "Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment,[1][2][3] which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training".
I first encountered mindfulness 10 or so years ago when seeking help with anxiety and depression bought on by PTSD and it rally had a positive impact on me. Real significant improvements rolled in within the first week and a total turn around in how I was feeling happened within a month. It didn't prevent me from feeling certain things but it made me review them and deal with them. My shrink back then talked about your our mental being can be described as a glass of water. If you keep topping it up then eventually it will overflow which for some can cause some challenges. One can stop the overflow by dealing with the increasing flow of water and tapping it off in a controlled way.
So...that's what I'm about to start doing again today. Headspace has a number of free sessions so that's where I'll be heading. Although things are nowhere near as challenging as they were back then I'm hoping it will help me get back in track so I can start moving forward with things once again.