Tag Archives: Slowing down

Your boss is not going to like me but…

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by in Advice, Change, Freedom, Mental health, Quiet and slow, Stress

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Your boss is not going to like me but….
Take a break!

Every day of my life I work with people who are battling with burn out and severe stress because of work.  And it just shouldn’t be that way.
As much as we all need to earn a living and pay our bills (and debts), our jobs cannot be our lives.
Unfortunately it has become that way – we live our lives for our work.  The same work that stresses you to a point that it makes you sick!
A very sad quote from Ellen Goodman makes this so clear:
“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it”

I just don’t think that it is worth it.
Surely your life is worth more than that?
It is time to take a break !  Get out of the office for lunch, sit under a tree and take in the world, have a cup of coffee (or even an ice cream) away from your desk.  Step away from the desk!

And when you are not at work – stop thinking about work.  I doubt that you love your boss that much that you need to fantasize about them at 4 in the morning – even if you are fantasizing about revenge.
Find something that is absolutely not work related and make time to do it.  Whether it is creative or energetic, you need to have something that gives you meaning other than work. Something that can give your mind and body a rest from the day to day endless stressful routine.

So, I’m sorry if I am going to upset your boss but it is time that employers started valuing their staff more and realising that by pushing their staff to breaking point, they are going to get less achieved in the long run.  And if nobody else is going to teach them that lesson, then it might as well be you.
Today is a good day to take your life back!

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RIP Gugu Zulu

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Advice, Life journey, Life Lessons, Mindfulness, Quiet and slow, Stress

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I am so devastated by the death of Gugu Zulu – a great racing car driver but more importantly, a great person.  A man who lived large.
He died while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for a good cause on Mandela Day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH5nOWfg13O/?taken-by=guguzulu

If nothing else, what we should gain from his death is that we have absolutely no idea what tomorrow is going to bring.
One minute we are here, the next minute, we are not.
One day we are amazingly successful, the next, we may have lost everything.

So the question is:
If the only thing we know is right now, then why are we spending right now worrying about what might happen tomorrow?
Why do lead such stressful lives without ever slowing down to enjoy the small things (and the big things)?
There is a huge industry that is making money off our stress by supplying every supplement and energy booster you can think of when we should be boosting our own energy levels through slowing down, better eating, exercise and having a better attitude towards life.
We should be building resilience towards stress rather than just wishing it away (while downing another cup of coffee to keep us going).
Our lives should be worth so much more than the value that we give attribute to them.

So, next time you say “I don’t want to be stressed” you should do something about it!
Make today count!

Living slower

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Advice, Change, Mindfulness, Relaxation

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It is 8:30 in the evening and I’m sitting in an apartment in London typing this while my dinner is being made (very kindly) for me.
I walked more today than I have in a long time, probably since the last time I was in London.
And let me add that I never eat dinner this late at home. Dinner is usually a rushed affair after a homework battle and a mad dash to the shops because somebody forgot to buy something.
Now I’m just drinking my tea and relaxing my sore feet.
I’ve been thinking a lot over the past few days about how crazy our lives are. Or rather how crazy we allow our lives to be.
Though while I’m walking casually through Waterloo station and everyone is madly dashing for their trains – probably to get to their stressful evening routines, I know that this sense of calm and not worrying about time is only what happens when you’re on holiday.
But I’m on a mission to stop some of the craziness when I get back home.

I am sure that we let our lives become more chaotic than they should be because we take things too seriously.
It doesn’t have to be that way!
And while it is never going to be all peaceful and relaxing, it doesn’t always have to be crazy and chaotic either.
We should strive for a better middle ground.
It shouldn’t be about always just living for the weekend or the next holiday but rather embracing where we are now.
It should be about doing things more slowly, with a bigger smile. It should be about enjoying now rather than wishing time away.
It should be about letting go of the unimportant little things and striving for the big exciting things.

That is my mission and I really hope that you will join me too!