Though this post will, I hope, be helpful for everyone, it's written particularly with highly sensitive readers in mind. Especially during this season, as we're preparing for the holidays, dealing with shorter days and longer nights, and—depending on where you live—some very cold weather blowing in, it's important to look after your comfort and wellbeing. Take note of how you're feeling throughout the day. Do you need to move more, or meditate more? Are you hungry, cold, tired, overworked? Do you need a break or will you feel better crossing a few things off your list?
One important element of looking after yourself is to notice how much you try to fit into each day and take care not to overload yourself. It can be so tempting to add just one more thing to your calendar, but how often does that one thing become two, or three, or more as the day progresses and new challenges are lobbed your way?
Along with strategically choosing what you'll do with your time each day, and as counterproductive as it might seem at first blush, strategically map out times for not doing things. That is, I encourage you to leave time for transitions between activities. Booking one activity after another on your calendar with no room to breathe is likely to leave you frustrated, overwrought, and exhausted.
If this feels difficult right now, I invite you take a moment to imagine what your day might look like if you were able to calmly and steadily work through your writing, tasks, and projects, with time to breathe, rest, get a glass of water, chat with a co-worker, practice a few moments of mindfulness, or just simply be throughout your work day (or, if you dare, your whole day!). Imagine clearing your mental space between activities so you can focus easily on the next one. If physicality speaks to you, imagine how nice it would feel to ease that persistent crick in your neck, to stretch your legs or roll your shoulders, to take a quick walk outside.
Not leaving enough transition time increases stress and can heighten the appeal of procrastination, intensify feelings of imposter syndrome, and spur even stronger inner resistance to doing the hard work of mental pursuits—studying and writing being chief among them.
Whether you schedule in transition time when you sit down for your weekly or daily calendar review, or whether you simply practice adding in transition time throughout the day when you feel the need, I encourage you to slow down, not to speed up, when overwhelm hits. Make time between activities for revitalization.
For a deeper look at what transition time means for highly sensitive people, I encourage you to read Elaine Aron's blog on this topic.
Image courtesy of Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay
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