Week 7 – Walking Your Way to Happiness – Building Your Resilience
“When we spend most of our time at work or thinking about it even when we're not physically in the workspace, our levels of cortisol - the stress hormone – are raised. Stress levels that are permanently high lead to poor decision-making, lack of perspective, impatience and anxiety, depression and addiction (to our own adrenaline, which is also elevated in times of stress, as well as external elements, such as drink or drugs), mental illness …the list goes on. We find ourselves in constant ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode, our bodies desperately scramble to catch up with the unrelenting stress we’re putting ourselves through. We lose all sense of personal boundaries and we completely forget that we as human animals need nurturing.
In-short we’ve abandoned ourselves and, in my experience, the worst trauma occurs not when we are abandoned by others but when we abandon ourselves.
How do you think you might have abandoned yourself? Perhaps by no longer doing a hobby are used to enjoy or by not spending time with people who aren’t associated with your work? Maybe you’ve abandoned yourself to overeating, by drinking alcohol to excess or by getting involved in toxic relationships or simply by working too hard for too long. Take a moment now to consider the areas in your life in which personal abandonment could be happening.
By highlighting these areas, hopefully you’ll see where your life may have become unmanageable. It's important to note that a lack of manageability, plus the loss of personal boundaries and the inability to say ‘No’ or Stop’ can create indecisiveness, insecurity and stress in day-to-day life. And if you're stressed for prolonged periods of time, you lose personal clarity and end up feeling trapped and powerless. Rediscovering personal clarity and honesty, plus learning how to manage the factors that can cause stress, are the key drivers behind my book ‘walk with your wolf’” – Jonathan Hoban (Author, Psychotherapist & Walking Therapist)
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