Are you busy being busy?
“How are you?”
“Busy!”
This is a common reply when you ask how someone is. I’ve said this myself many times. It’s as if being busy is a badge of honour. Sometimes it can feel good to be on high alert, it can trick us into feeling productive. It’s almost as if we get a high from being reactive.
Stress can be useful, it can enhance our performance when we need an extra boost. The problem is that being on high alert over a long period has negative effects. More quickly than we might realise the optimum levels of stress can spill into overwhelm which makes us less efficient and less productive.
Long term systems such as digestion, immune system and fertility can be affected as our bodies prioritise survival. You might notice this if you get run down easily, have IBS or suffer with a hormone imbalance. You could also find that it’s hard to concentrate on a task, difficult to relax, sit still or calm your busy mind. A lot of people are noticing these symptoms during lockdown as we don’t have our usual go-tos to balance out our busyness.
Another tell-tale sign is that the majority of your rest time isn’t restful - examples of this are: scrolling on your phone, watching TV but not following the plot, lying awake in bed, drinking alcohol just to relax. These activities provide a distraction, a bit of escapism but they don’t top you up.
If this rings true with you then here are some ideas that might help:
Creating space - have time at the start and end of your day where you don’t have to be reactive (respond to people). This is tricky if you’ve got kids or people who depend on you. You could set your alarm 5 minutes early to just have a few moments to yourself before your day begins.
Don’t check your phone straight away when you wake up. Allow yourself to wake up before checking to see what the world needs from you or what other people are doing. Ideally have your phone on airplane mode when you go to sleep so that notifications aren’t the first thing you see when you switch your alarm off. You could use an old school alarm to avoid using your phone for this.
Cull notifications you don’t need - having things grab your attention throughout the day isn’t good for our concentration. Give yourself a bit of a brain break so that you go into an app or your emails when you want to check. You can control the input.
Take some long breathes in the shower, feel and visualise the water flowing over you.
Reflect. If it’s hard to sit still and to let go of being ‘on’ then maybe asking yourself the following questions - What does being busy bring you? Why do you need to distract yourself? Are you uncomfortable in your own company?
Rest and recovery are essential to success which is why I promote ‘active rest’ to my clients. Active rest is building in restorative practices into your lifestyle to avoid being forced to stop and slow down.
If you’re on all day and the only exercise you do is adrenaline fuelled - such as running, spinning and HIIT then you could benefit from mixing things up with some oxytocin fuelled activities such as yoga, walking, mindfulness, stretches, swimming (when possible).
If you’re so tired at the end of the day and at weekends that you struggle to do any exercise at all then instead of beating yourself up about this try the suggestions below to top up your energy levels first. After a week or so of listening to your need for rest then you might feel more able to incorporate more exercise.
Take a nap.
Any mindful movement: yoga (hatha or yin), Chi Gong, Tai Chi,
Yoga nidra - the relaxing part at the end of a yoga class. There are lots of free videos and mp3s.
Mindfulness and meditation - again lots of free resources including what I write and record for you on here.
Mindful activities such as gardening, walking and noticing things, sewing, knitting, being creative can increase your sense of well-being.
An interesting podcast on this topic is this one by Dr Chatterjee: BITESIZE | Why Rest Is Important and How To Get More | Claudia Hammond - Dr Rangan Chatterjee (drchatterjee.com)
If you’d like a chat about being less busy and more productive or how to rest effectively send me a message hello@sianquipp.com or book in a chat.