“The issue with our current take on wellbeing is that we care when it’s not there.”
Easily You: When Wellbeing Works For You, Elodie Caucigh
According to corporate wellbeing and advertising professional Elodie Caucigh, who had ignored her burnout for years, wellbeing is not something you squeeze in a busy day, and neither are you. Rather it is a natural state of being. Here are the signs to look out for and check on yourself to help you move from unease back into ease.
Your body screams for attention
“We all share similar stories of how our bodies play a major role in getting ourselves unstuck. That gives us at least a convenient place to look at.”
When your body aches and tenses up, it is always a clear sign that something in your life, be it at work, in your relationships to others or to yourself needs consideration. This can go from the smallest symptoms like a locked jaw to chronic pain and burnout. Even if being aware of your physical wellbeing alone isn’t a cure, listening to your body is a good place to allow yourself to pause and inquire further. What aspect of your behaviour and thought pattern would benefit from a little more awareness?
The way you work doesn’t quite work for you
When your body tenses up at your desk from the back to the neck or when your mind rebels against even the smallest tasks on your to-do list, it is counterproductive to keep going and force your will against yourself. So pay attention to repeated distractions, to your posture, to how you believe you should work, to what you think you have to do and try another approach instead. How can you about go about your work day in a way that feels right, lighter and more in line with you? Here a small change of mindset, adapting your schedule, detaching yourself from the stakes at work and identifying less with your activity or job title can make wonders already.
“When you do what works for you (...) you’ll notice it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t disturb you. It doesn’t call for another action. It doesn’t tell you that somewhat, somewhere, there is tension in the air.”
Your behaviours and discourse are draining you
“Showing who you are or pretending you are someone requires the same amount of energy. Between being and faking, you get to choose.”
From people pleasing to the urge to fit in, you can loose a tremendous amount of energy, emotional stability and clarity of mind if you live to fulfil somebody else’s expectations or those which you have taken on from outside yourself and made your own. So if you feel repeatedly low and tired, ask yourself: what inherited beliefs, borrowed agendas and personality traits could be draining you right now?
“If I mix up my way of being for yours, if I cruise through life on a line that’s not mine, that’s where my wellbeing starts to blink and blind.”
You keep jumping from one challenge to the next
Beyond the excitement and drive you may experience from challenging yourself and going the extra mile, if you are naturally drawn to overachieving, overbooking and overpowering yourself repeatedly, be cautious and ask yourself what is the reason behind. This can be in the professional context, in sports or in relationships, or a mix of them. What underlying unease is this restless busyness of yours trying to cover?
“Burnout is a self-orchestrated scam we do to ourselves in a last attempt to burn down every aspect of our misconstructed self. It is an internal call for awareness. A chance, at last, to rest and reset.”
You feel off despite your experience and expertise
“Why attempt to feel grounded so far away from yourself? If you feel off, if you feel overexposed and estranged, at the very end of that field, you certainly are.”
To feel inadequate or illegitimate in your field of expertise is not a fault in its own, nor is it something to be ashamed of. Instead, try to see it as a chance to check on yourself. Do you feel at home in your discipline or is there any other field, no matter how divergent it may be from your current one that keeps showing up and puts a spark in your eyes?
Self-expression isn’t your cup of tea
There are many ways to express yourself, your opinion, your creativity, your intuition and just as many excuses not to do so. Because we fear to hurt and get hurt in return, we shy away from conflict, we shame ourselves for what we feel and we prefer to remain quiet in our comfort zone of discomfort rather than to dare to speak up. So why not loosen up and take baby steps to show more of who you are, and what you think and feel? You’d be surprised at the transformation this brings about.
“Emotions are language. When they aren’t expressed, they find a place where they will wait. In the cushy couches of your organs. Until the overlooked is overbooked.”
You choose to ignore what you know
If it is common to dismiss what you cannot explain, you may be cutting yourself from your potential to seize great opportunities and to make your life run smoother. That gut feeling of yours is here for a good reason and when it is overlooked and questioned repeatedly, it is replaced by fear, self-criticism, mistrust and this can lead to inner conflict. For sure you may have noticed how in hindsight you’ve had “this feeling” about a person or a deal and yet chose to go against it only to claim after to yourself, “I knew it!” Well, now may be the time to go back to those moments, keep a record of all the situations in which you’ve “known” and remember that what feels right to you doesn’t need an explanation to be valid.
“Wellbeing is to know you can trust yourself, beyond what you understand.”
Easily You: When Wellbeing Works For You by Elodie Caucigh is published By Clink Street Publishing RRP £22.99 is available to buy online from retailers including Amazon.co.uk and can be ordered from all good bookstores.
