Why you need to stop and reset?

Blog Series: Slow Leadership Movement

Are you one of those people that keep themselves so busy that there's no time to stop and think?

What if I was to tell you that this is not productive, and it doesn’t need to be this way?

As a coach and a therapist, working with successful professionals, I've found that the moment we finally stop and get comfortable in our own silence is the moment we start the real healing journey.

It takes a brave person to put aside their ideas of having to keep up with the Joneses.

Constant hustling and pushing to get everything done in the shortest amount of time purely generates unhelpful stress in the body. In fact, your busyness is making you sick!

Studies show that your autonomic nervous system, the home of the fight-or-flight response, is designed to get you out of trouble when you really need it, but are you unnecessarily keeping yourself in a stressful state? When you trigger the fight or flight response, your body focuses all its energy and resources on keeping your essential organs going, such as your heart. Unfortunately, your digestive system it's not considered an essential organ when you are in a stressed state and digestion can slow or even stop. If you maintain fight or flight mode for an extended period research tells us that you can end up dealing with gastrointestinal distress.

There was a time in my life when I had young children and I was running the corporate rat race and if you had asked, I was always ‘very busy’. I was exhausted and I was burnt out, but I kept telling myself I had to keep going. I didn't have a choice. It wasn't until I found myself dreading going to work because of the anxiety that was rising in my body, that I finally stopped long enough to breathe.

I was good at my job. I had never let anyone down and I would always give more then I probably should have. However, this one day I found myself going to the 100th meeting for the day (slight exaggeration only) and I realised I something… I now hated my job… or at least that's what I told myself. What I really didn't know at the time was that I hated the feeling of not having control over my choices. I had no boundaries protecting me and my sanity.

I walked into a staff meeting and very quickly it got to the point where I could not stand being there. My stomach was churning, and my heart was heating so fast. When my director asked how I was, I simply said… terrible. His jaw hit the desk and all eyes landed on me. To say this was an uncomfortable moment would be a massive understatement but what I did notice happening in the room was the collective gentle nodding of heads. It turns out many others in the room were also not OK. I announced to my director that the relentless amount of work was just too much for too long. That is in fact the moment I mentally resigned.

This entire situation created serious gastrointestinal distress, and I paid the price for not removing myself from this environment sooner. My version of stopping was rather dramatic, and it doesn't need to be the case for everyone. I began the process of reskilling myself and forged a road map towards a new sustainable career with far better boundaries.

For some of you considering ow to stop it could simply be a matter of having a break from your current environment to give your autonomic nervous system an opportunity to calm and reset. This might be, moving jobs, taking a short course, going to a retreat, working with a coach on professional development, or seeking out a therapist to let go of the past.

If you are busy distracting yourself from the stress that is building up in your life, I encourage you to get help to STOP and reset your system. As the Success SLOW Coach™, I am asking you to take control of your future. If you are ready to take action and learn the art of achieving more without the busy, I invite you to contact me to stop and reset. And remember your success is waiting!

busy, I invite you to