Finding balance whilst away

I’ve been giving some thought to how we allow ourselves to take care of our own needs, including when we’re doing stuff that is supposed to recharge our batteries – namely taking time away. If you’re an overachiever like me, it can be a struggle to not hit everything on the ‘must-do’ list – be it the must-see places in a destination or delivering the elf on the shelf and everyone’s favourite foods for a family celebration. By the time we get back from our time away – we usually feel like we need another holiday to recover.

I’ve done a lot of work to unlearn trying to overachieve in my off time – for me it was learning to be okay with sitting in stillness and not expecting to achieve things constantly. I am sure a lot of people will be taking time off later this month, so I thought I’d share a couple of my insights.

I read an article somewhere ages ago (I couldn’t find it to link it) that talked about how people who were fully engaged during their holiday felt recharged for longer than those that had lazed about with nothing to do. For myself, I’ve found this to be true.

Recently, we spent two weeks in Thailand, split out time across three cities: Phuket (chill, beach area), Chiang Mai (low intensity, small city) and Bangkok (giant, super intense city). We made having chill, beach time the focus in Phuket, did a cooking class and day trip to the mountains in Chiang Mai and checked out museums and street art in Bangkok. Along the way we stayed connected about how we were doing, so when the humidity and heat got to be too much in Bangkok, we hid out in a mall for a couple hours. There was even a night of ordering in and having time to ourselves – I read, Rahul got a massage. Heaven.

We didn’t do everything we possibly could. We didn’t spend hours and hours wandering between sites. We had taken the decision to just not. The goal was to be actively engaged in what we were doing while we were there and staying well clear of running ourselves ragged. For me, I had to pay special attention to my energy levels and attitude – those are my early warning signs that I’m trying to do too much. I learned about my ‘doing too much’ signals in coaching when I was learning how to listen to and address my own needs. If addressing your own needs sounds like a fantasy land – coaching can help you unblock having more balance in your life. Set up a free Chemistry Chat.