A Festive Phased-Return to Work

“Switch off your work brain and be fully present with your family and friends this festive holiday!”

I lost count of the variations of that invitation I read this year and I don’t know about you but it gives me more of a ha ha ha you have to be kidding than a ho ho ho let’s party feeling.

It takes real effort and determination to transition from our work brain into a state of leisure and there are quite a few reasons for this but that’s not what I want to share today, I’ll park that one for another time perhaps.

Instead, I'd like to invite you to join me in honouring all of the rest and replenishment we've invested in this festive season. To protect our health and wellbeing and to be fully present to where we are both in life and in work or businesses. At the risk of stating the obvious, life has been somewhat disrupted in the past few years and it’s left us feeling a wee bit like we’re on the back peddle.?We are crying out for some time-out to replenish and at the same time we are deeply concerned about what will happen if we take it.

And I don’t mean in a dramatic, oh my, the world might stop spinning way, I think we’re all intelligent enough to know that catastrophising (ok, not a real word but it works, so it’s staying) at this level is slightly overkill.?Rather, it takes on a more insidious, seeping like quality until we are waking up in the wee small hours wondering if we sent that email to that big client or did we leave the oven on!

If you are one of those people who despite investing faithfully in their personal and professional development, have become used to running at 80%, then you probably still had the capacity to give yourself a good talking to and were able to launch into the full spirit of the festive season, sort of. I also bet you're knackered now.

But if you hit the holidays depleted, stressed, anxious and overwhelmed by your new work/life cocktail culture, then you were more likely to succumb to needing serious duvet time before you could even begin to contemplate being sociable.

Either way, it's hard work right?!

So we really shouldn’t be surprised that, having worked hard to get into this relaxed pseudo pre-industrial way of life, that every part of us is screaming Nooooo! I’m not ready to return yet!

We’ve been dreaming, creating, possibly even planning of what our future year ahead might look like - yeah I know about New Year’s resolutions being a pointless activity and yet, to some extent, I bet you’re doing it anyway - even your reluctance to do it is a resolution of sorts!

So when the tick tock of our work/life clock begins to creep its way into our conscious thinking, we resign ourselves to the reality that we have to shift, once again, and find another new thing to work hard at.?We know it has to be done, but I wonder if there’s another way of easing into it?

Like for example, could we step into the year ahead by honouring the place we are in first?

For me that would look like taking the time to journal out all my thoughts and hopes and yes, frustrations too.?Journaling is my go-to place to honour my creativity but also to give me headspace for the things I actually want to be thinking about. Bringing your awareness to what is going on inside your own head can really help to give you the clarity you need to know what to do next - and more often than not, how to do it, and who can help you.

The caveat here is when all of the rich and fulfilling prose falls onto your page, you’re going to want to spring into action. And it will feel wrong.?That’s when you’ll know that you’re still not operating at 100%, that you’re not really done hibernating and you will get that sense you are not ready yet.?There's more preparation needed, more contemplation and creating to be done. This is the juncture where you begin the transition from being to doing.?Done gently, you will find your flow and maybe even enjoy the change!

This is the perfect energy to begin planning.?I don’t mean losing your mind to an excel spreadsheet (but if that’s your thing then go for it!) but by doing something simple like getting that freebie annual calendar you were given out and setting some dates of what might happen in the year ahead.?You could even start with planning holidays, trips or treats, just to get you started. The intention here is not to confine you to doing things at certain times but rather to calm you mind into knowing that you’ve written down somewhere what you want fill your time with.?

One of the things I’m doing differently this year is to be mindful of what I can take out of my day.?I’m determined to enjoy more time for reading, walking and writing - this is the first blog I’ve written from start to finish in over a year!?I want to make more time for the things I love doing, the things I lost to a world that went a wee bit nuts and lost its work/life boundaries.?So I will be focussing on how I can take things out of what I do day to day as much as what I am adding in. My diary will be filled with beautiful big blanks this year!

This brings us to that state of being very aware of how we feel and what we desire and it's a good time to come back to basics, back to a lesson we seem to need to learn over and over again.?Putting our own needs first, prioritising them like our health and wellbeing depend on it - oh wait, it does!

Before you dive back to your desk and become bent and stiff from sitting all day, or stocking up on the blister plasters you’ll need after spending a day on your feet, check in with yourself, what are you basic physical, psychological and spiritual needs??What do you need to continue to replenish and feel safe and secure?

What are the things that you most need in order for you to get to 100%? You may remember, this is the state of being where we are ok- whoever thought that would become such a luxury?

My bookshelf is filled with books screaming about how damaging our lifestyle is to our mental health, our physical health, our spiritual health, and on and on and on, and I bet we could play a mean game of snap with them so I’m guessing you don’t really need me to tell you again why it’s important. Instead I would invite you to ask yourself:?What can I do differently this coming year??How can I take all that I know is good for me and make changes that will transform my life?

I’ve started my intention for next year simply by making more space because that is one of the things I know will help me to fulfil all of my needs.?And if you don’t yet buy into the less is more philosophy, then I highly recommend you read Subtract by Leidy Klotz, it has really helped me reshape my determination to eliminate busyness from my life.

This is my version of a phased-return to work and I believe it might just be the remedy to fight of those January blues.?Honour where you are at, meet your needs and start your year gently, kindly and let's all try to find our 100% again.?Happy Hogmanay!