Rhythm of Life

Thought for the Day on Radio 4 is one of my morning pleasures.  I will often catch-up if I miss one, or listen again, as I did to Brian Draper's recent thought, on work-life balance and the importance of recreation.  He asked a question that quite often comes up in workplace counselling, is the way you're working, working for you?

 

I regularly assess individuals for whom work has become a serious battle.  It's not necessarily conflict in the workplace, but the stress and strain that they find themselves taking home each day and remaining connected to, even at the weekend.

 

All too often I find myself having discussions with clients about the 'performance recipe':  where challenge must have an equal counterpart of support, else most people will (at some point) likely buckle under the pressure.

 

The territory of stress and burnout are very often avoidable, but awareness is rarely enough.  Action is essential, if stress is to be taken to task, and burnout side-stepped.  And this is where I am most likely to become directive.

 

You cannot hope to ameliorate your stress levels outside the workplace if you are continually 'plugged in' to it.  Logging on from home, outside of working hours is the number one contender.  And those found guilty are usually in possession of a work laptop, tablet or smartphone. 

 

Do you do you a job that requires you to be on-call?  Is there a rota for this?  Are you compensated for the additional work?  If not, then it might be worthwhile asking yourself why you're tuning-in to work, when you're not at work. 

 

Many of us have yet to get the so-called work life balance right.  And, once we've found it, we need to work to maintain it.  Draper proposed that, instead of balance, we think in terms of rhythm.

 

Each of us have a personal rhythm.  We will surely work best when we are in sync with this rhythm.  The relentless expectations we hold for ourselves and the perennial multi-tasking we rely on mean that we are apt to 'tag on' rest, or play at the end of a (too) long day, giving this a lot less of our energy and attention, before expecting ourselves to get up, and do it all over again tomorrow.

 

It is hardly surprising the 'hamster wheel' analogy gets employed in the therapy room, alongside the tendency to deny ourselves the rest we require to sustain our high level functioning. 

 

I too like Tony Schwartz's conceptualisation of ourselves as 'oscillatory creatures', whose energy necessarily ebbs and flows, in daily and even hourly rhythms - within a wider world of seasons, and cycles. It makes sense to me that, when we find ourselves out of kilter with our natural rhythms, we are likely to suffer dis-ease.

 

It occurs to me that were we to become more mindful about the ways in which we spend our energy, and those ways in which we might renew our energy, we might become more conscious of the imperative to stop, in order to rest and recharge completely.  In this way, work and rest might best be seen as more equal partners, rather than competitors. 

 

It's one thing sitting, thinking, and even talking about it.  One of the first things I will share with a client presenting to address work related stress is that we must set out to do precisely that:  address it.  But not with mere words.  The things we consider in the therapy room, must be actively addressed outside of the therapy room, if the referral is to be worthwhile.

 

I can assist, in illuminating the salient patterns that may be more or less helpful.  I can support the identification of strategies.  But implementation is not my domain.   

 

Change takes willingness.  Seeing a counsellor or therapist is a step.  And often a very important step.  However, whilst professionals like myself might seek to provide a catalyst, the service we offer is unlikely to be an entire ready-made solution.