Trying to THRIVE…or Survive?

Hi everyone,

You might have missed me last week. I know I did. I started a really awesome blog post relating to how my health is in directly disproportionate to the health of UBC faculty and staff (because when I’m working hard to increase everyone else’s health, my health declines!)…but I didn’t get to finish it.  Because I was way too busy working!

Let me tell you- I think THRIVE week may kill me off.  Oh the irony of that fact.  For those of you who don’t know- I’m helping to coordinate THRIVE week- a whole week of health events at UBC for students, staff and faculty.  It’s an amazing week and I’m just so darned proud of it that I could burst.  Yesterday’s breakfast cooking show with Professor Toope was so great, but obviously a tad stressful! 

With running THRIVE events, and then being the contact person for HSE about H1N1, the Healthy Workplace Initiatives Program Fund applications due next week, and a few other to-do’s that have shifted onto my plate…well, I thought all this work about health would kill me off! (oh the irony!)

But that’s ok.  I’ve always known that these few weeks are going to be the craziest, work-dedicated weeks of this year for me.  And I’m ok with that, because I know it won’t last forever.  After it’s done, the dust will settle…and because of all the health information I’m sharing all the time, I’m actually really conscientious right now of dealing with my stress and trying to balance as much as possible, even when work is taking over my entire life (eg. Saturday and part of Sunday).  I’m especially trying to make sure I don’t get H1N1 during my week of programming dedicated to health so I’m working very hard at looking after me too, even with long work hours and lots of responsibility/expectations that I put on myself.  (If I fell ill with H1N1 during the week that’s dedicated to health…well, let me say that it would simply be more irony than I could handle!).

And so while I work very hard to ensure that I am not a hypocrite (eg. talking about work/life balance and not living it!), I am also feeling very good because I can relate now to those people who work so hard, well into the weeknights and well into the weekends.  And I can also relate to those people who maybe don’t want to leave work because there’s not as much going in their personal life right now. (laugh at me if you’d like, but Vancouver’s a hard city sometimes to connect with people, especially in my age group, when you’re single and not interested in the bar scene!).

So let me share with you what I’ve been doing to try to make the most out of my time outside of work during these hectic few weeks, so that I make the most of my life and avoid burning out and losing my ability to love my job:

1. Friday night:  I finished work late, so I went straight home, walked the dog, called the pizza delivery company and ordered chicken wings. That’s right- I ate chicken wings for my health.  Sometimes we can use food for mental health! Chicken wings are a comfort food for me and I needed some comfort on a rainy windy friday night.  Stogie, my dog, and I piled onto the bed and I fell asleep around 9 pm after reading my book.

2. Saturday: Even though I had to get work done, I chose a spot that made me feel at peace and helped me be productive (I love the Wired Monk).  After I finished a bunch of work, I rewarded myself with time to make a really great, healthy meal (hmmm, whole wheat pasta with prawns and a homemade tomato basil sauce) for myself and a friend with a nice bottle of pinot noir, give out candy to the kids who stopped by (honestly also a bunch of candy as comfort food too), and then sent my friend home around 9 pm…so I could once again crawl into bed with my dog and my book.

2.  Sunday: I woke up at 7 am (but I didn’t remember the time change, so it was I guess actually 6 am!?), ate a health breakfast (low-sugar granola with no-sugar added vanilla rice milk) then went for a run down to the beach with the dog to watch the sunrise.  It was peaceful and quiet and so perfectly restoring.  Around 9 am, I met up with a group of strangers to go hiking.  Because I injured my pectoral muscle a couple weeks ago, I haven’t been able to climb, so I decided to give hiking a try (I’ve gone hiking before but I would say I’m still a long way off from calling myself a Hiker), and I’m a member of MEC’s wanderung which is a free listserv of folks who organize hiking trips and such.   The trip to Goat Lake was amazing, except for the really difficult climb up Grouse Mountain.  We didn’t do the official “Grind” but we went up a secretive, snaking, much too steep (for my lungs and calves!) trail, which meant that I almost quit….but the leader of our group was a patient sort who went slow for me during the last hour or so that it took me to get up there… It’s funny to feel myself struggle, when I am thought to be so outdoorsy, but some things are not our body’s forte!  The rest of the hike to Goat was easy for me (and fun!), especially since there was some snow up there, and some great views with shifting, swirling clouds, and they were a great group of folks!  The gondola ride down was well earned, with a beautiful view of the city.  When I got home, I had to do a little more work, then I once again relished in some more “down time” to read my book and hang out with Stogie, my dog, and relax before I knew that this crazy week would begin.

So there you have it: my recipe to surviving crazy amounts of work-stress: chicken wings, reading books, lounging in bed, hanging out with the dog, hiking, early nights, gondola rides, strangers and sunrises.

Now I’ve got to get back to the grindstone! 🙂