Some of you may know that I was in the hospital in late May due to complications with Shingles. I thought it was a pesky bug bite, but when it started to spread down my face, scalp and eye I knew something was wrong. I went to the ER hoping they could help relieve the pain, itching and swelling and send me on my way – all the while thinking I was going to be back at work the next day. I was very wrong. It was four days later that I was released and though feeling bruised and tried, very grateful for my health. Why did a relatively young and in good health person get Shingles? Stress they told me. This is from a person that talks about the benefits of balance each day. And, yes it had been a stressful period, but I thought I was taking time for ever-so-important self-care. While in the hospital bed I had bit of time to reflect.
What I realized is the self-care I practice each week is all very busy –
swimming, yoga and dance. Rarely, if ever, did I stop to simply pause and reflect. Even before bed, I try to get caught-up on my professional reading. So, I am learning the importance of stopping.
Even in the cycle of creativity (Paul E. Plsek)
in the second phase, imagination, there is a period of “time in”. It’s a moment of spacious emptiness and it is crucial to inspiration. ‘Time in’, coined by Professor Tal-Ben Shahar who is a leading researcher of Positive Psychology, means allowing ourselves not to know. It means a time of silent reflection. It’s a time when we allow the mind to be a blank page. It is being, rather than doing. This is my lesson and goal – to remember to pause.
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Dayna Wood, EdS, REAT
Dayna is the founder of Integrative Counsel, where she shows stressed out professionals how to reignite their creativity and spark new meaning and adventure in their lives through the power of brain science.
