The Happy and Prosperous Blog

Last week, I wrote about my birthday and how I had been thinking about the time I had left available to me. I published that post on Sunday. I woke up on Monday feeling very unwell (flu ?), spend most of the week in bed and have not been out of the house since last Sunday ! Not the sort of start I wanted for my year. What happened ?

photo credit: littledan77

I feel a bit embarrassed about this really - as if I brought this illness on myself as a result of what I wrote last week. At one time during the week, I thought my estimate of living till 85 was wildly exaggerated !

My reflections this week are about why I got ill and what positive lessons I can take from this experience.

Enjoying My Work

I am someone who enjoys their work which, of course, is great. You will know, if you are a regular reader, that I design and build web sites for clients through my AttractMore Web Design business, I am a practising homeopath, I teach homeopathy and am a director of a homeopathy college. None of these occupations pays me a fixed salary, rather, I get paid for what I do.

The danger with this way of working coupled with the fact that I enjoy doing it all, means that I can end up working more hours that would normally be regarded as sensible. I’ve always felt this was OK because I was enjoying doing it.

ENOUGH

On further reflection (I’ve had plenty of time to reflect this week !), I suspect that I was working too many hours and this is why I got ill. It was as if my body shouted ‘ENOUGH !’ then forced me into nearly a week’s downtime.

Positive Aspects

The positive things I take from this week are

• A realisation I am not super-human (yes, really !)
• A deeper understanding of the supreme importance of health
• There were no disasters even though I did very little work this week
• I was able to finish the novel I have been reading for a while (Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens - GREAT book).
• I have not drunk coffee for a week now
• A need for boundaries

If someone had said to me that I should take a week off, I would have reacted with horror and said that I couldn’t possible do that. However, the choice was taken away from me and it was OK.

Boundaries are important. The setting of limits to work time is important. If there are no boundaries, nothing can be contained and everything leaks away. Is this what happens with ME/CFS ?

Lessons

If you enjoy your work - beware ! It’s a great blessing to enjoy what you do but, if you’re not careful, it can take over. Take time off, even when you think you can’t. Work-Life balance IS important (I even had that in my New Year’s Resolutions I think - ironically).

If you do get ill, ask yourself why that might be. It could, of course, have nothing to do with work. I think there is meaning in illness and, I suspect that finding out what that meaning is can help us stay healthier in the future.

Here’s to your health (and mine) !

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