Posted on 2nd June 2021 2

“So when are you going back to therapy?” A friend of mine asked on a call this week. I laughed it off.

“Are you hinting at something?”I retorted with a chuckle.

“No, I am not, but there was just a genuine glow about you and…” I was busy laughing and didn’t listen to the rest of what they said. A few hours later struggling with constipation I realised I probably should have listened.

 

I dismissed the rest of the discussion because I felt that I had all tools I needed to cope. Tools I realised later, I wasn’t employing in its entirety. My worldview has shifted and I am more aware of myself. But I do realise from that botched conversation, that figuring out myself is a moment by moment process.

Back to constipation (TMI forgive me). The last two days have been weird. I have been exhausted, like someone who’s been tilling land 1o hours a day for 30 days straight. That’s my natural workload, that’s not new, but what dawned on me. Was for the past two days, I haven’t been drinking or eating properly. It only hit me after I processed my conversation with my friend.

I haven’t been hungry at all during the day. At 4 pm the day before last, when I realised I had an intense workout, not eaten anything more than two bananas and barely drank 1.5 litres of water. By that hour I am normally inching closer to 5 litres of water drunk. It still hadn’t registered anything was wrong.

Only until yesterday evening just as I was thinking about getting started to cook supper I realised I hadn’t drunk a single cup of water, I wasn’t thirsty, but I also hadn’t had a bowel movement. Now that was absurd. I won’t get into more details. Let’s say, I ended up drinking two days worth of water consumption to get my system back in motion and boy! It wasn’t pretty.

 

Most of the time, the symptoms of stress that manifest tend to be when you are in dire straits. Aches and pains, headaches, or persistent migraines, high blood pressure, muscle tension etc.

I started to notice my face was breaking out more than usual. I had no idea I was stressed until my friend made a passing comment. The human body wasn’t built for this kind of work stress, stress to it was survival in the wilderness from wildlife and natural calamities.

I love what I do, but the big question that runs through my mind more often than not, is how exactly do I really build and work-life balance while ensuring I have happy clients and a growing business?

I am genuinely open to ideas, as I look up my notebooks from my therapy sessions and get back to my healthy routines.