This question has come up a few times for myself and my clients. It can come up for a number of reasons including: 1) You’ve experienced burnout before 2) You’re facing uncertainty in a project 3) You are really tired (either physically or mentally) Sometimes you're not sure what to do, so what do you do? NOT FORCING, NOT STOPPING Continuing on the theme of Eastern wisdom from last week's Be Like Water, a related principle that’s helped me in these relatively turbulent times is the Taoist and Buddhist of finding the sweet spot between not forcing and not stopping. It’s the sense you have when you're not pushing yourself to make something happen but you're not giving up or stopping entirely either. It’s helped my clients to intuitively sense where their energy level is and adjust their level of activity accordingly without thinking too much about it. Otherwise, it’s been an intense week with many energy allocation decisions! 1) The good: award time. I shared my mixed feelings about attending an awards event for the book I wrote The Success Trap in a LinkedIn post here. No matter how things look on the outside, there's always more going on for any human. 2) The bad: I also shared the impact of the new war as someone who’s lived in war and worked in one as a doctor (in South Sudan) and thoughts on why we need to start preventing the next war now with an inner-shift (you can read the LinkedIn post here.) Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I believe that for many of us, especially those who are sensitive or empathic, our task is as peacekeepers through how we're being and showing up in all our interactions. That is the highest use of your energy once you've done what you can practically. Why? 1) Maintaining a calm, open-hearted and clear-minded state helps others regulate their own state, as a dear client discovered after offering support to a friend in Ukraine. The friend was less in need of medical supplies and more in need of space to process her emotions and be heard. 2) You diminish anxiety and fear in the wider social fabric and create a ripple of impact that counters violent instincts 3) Aside from my personal experience with this, another dear client reminded me of the scientific evidence of the positive ripple of impact of peace intentions using meditation. Or as Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov put it:
Acquire a peaceful disposition and then thousands around you will be saved.
What can you do to be at peace with where you are right now, from within? Will you give yourself permission to be exactly where you are and neither force yourself, nor give up on what you need to do? What do you notice? Have a good week, Amina p.s. As you may have seen, I’ll be holding a free workshop on how to harness ‘dark’ emotions of grief, anger and sadness while getting on with life, on the 24th of March. Bring a friend and come! Registration here: https://doctoramina.lpages.co/darkside/
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