Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
My ‘too busy’ became burnout: Fatigued & passing out, I lost my business but then found clarity
Denial is a super-strong forcefield. But even our strongest defences eventually give if we push too hard for too long, sacrificing everything for this thing we call work.
As a child, my work ethic was drummed into me by my parents. They believed the only way to achieve success was to always work harder than the next person.
Overwork doesn’t work. Our work capacity maxes out at about 38 hours. At 70 hours a week we’re no more productive than if we worked 55 hours. Worse still it leads to mental exhaustion, increases your risk of depression or anxiety and puts you on the fast-track to burnout.
To be blunt. Overwork is killing us. While Australia doesn’t keep records of this, other countries including Japan, South Korea and China do. It’s one thing to love your job, but it’s never worth dying for through heart attack, stroke or suicide. Busyness doesn’t equate to being effective, efficient or fulfilled. If you’re constantly exhausted, worried how long you can sustain working at warp-speed six without self-combusting it’s time to pull back and ask – What do I really want?
How to boost mental wellbeing with this activity
At a time where the focus is very much about maintaining our mental wellbeing, it’s important to reflect on what you find helpful.
The latest reports indicate that many of us are finding it hard to deal with the ongoing challenge of continuing uncertainty, stress and anxiety brought about by the pandemic.
Sure, being sufficiently active, trying to eat healthily, getting enough sleep and looking for ways to stay connected are all great, but there’s something else that sometimes gets forgotten.
Making the time to have some fun.
What do you know? How to better manage uncertainty
Uncertainty. Love it or loathe it there’s plenty to go round at present. The one thing the pandemic has given us in bucketloads is the ongoing uncertainty around how long these unusual times will continue for and what the road ahead holds for us.
The reason uncertainty is such a challenge is because your brain craves certainty. When things are familiar, when you recognise the pattern of events as they unfold you know everything will be alright. It’s safe, and safety is your brain’s primary organising principle.
Uncertainty means the outcome is unpredictable. There’s every possibility you may not be safe. The stress response is triggered, and you experience the discomfort of worry and the ‘what ifs?’
Are You Living The Good Life?
One of my favourite comedy sitcoms from the seventies (oops, showing my age here) was ‘The Good Life’. It was based on the story of how Tom Good (Richard Briers) on his 40th birthday decides he’s had enough of the rat race, quits his job and determines that he and his...
What makes for a good life?
It’s not an unreasonable hope that we’ll stay fit and well enough to continue to enjoy a full and fulfilling life as we age. What the data from the study revealed was that the strongest predictor to who would be a happy healthy 80-year old at age fifty, wasn’t their cholesterol level.
It was the degree of satisfaction in their relationships.
Blah-de-Blah-de-Woof-Woof. Will someone please turn off all that noise!
I don’t know about you, but all this noise is driving me stir-crazy!
Which noise?
The incessant noise from the media.
While it’s important to remain informed about world and local events, the ‘news’ as it used to be called has increasingly become a channel for opinion and journalistic commentary. With so much anxiety and uncertainty around courtesy of the pandemic this relentless 24-hour merry-go-round of rehashed information has the potential to perpetuate conspiracy theories and accentuate the worst possible outcomes, which is unhelpful at best.
Enough of all this blah-de-blah-de-woof-woof!
It’s one thing to be appraised of our reality. It’s something else to become fearful and depressed as a consequence. Our mental wellbeing is being put to the test and those already vulnerable to anxiety and depression are the ones who will suffer the most.