Do you ever feel like:
- you are being pulled in too many directions?
- there is too much being asked of you?
- YOU are responsible for that person and that activity and this …?
Is it all too much? Recently, I read The Joy of Burnout by Dr. Dina Glouberman, where she provided a visual that describes this situation beautifully:
Picture someone or something you are over invested in. Imagine that your energy is like rays, or I like to say strands of spaghetti, coming out of a hole in the top of your head. The ends of the spaghetti are stuck in that person or thing.
My imagination traded in that spaghetti for my blood vessels and I quite literally saw my life energy flowing out of me into those others.
Pick either image, close your eyes, and feel into it for a moment.
Imagine a strand for each attachment that drains you.
If what you are feeling is all too familiar, I invite you now to take the next step that Dr. Glouberman suggests. One by one, reach up, gently grab a strand, detach it from the other and stuff it back through that hole in your head into your body. Breathe deeply as if to bring that energy down into your being. Repeat as often as needed with each strand until you feel the impact of having reclaimed your personal energy.
Now, the critical next step: from this place of feeling energized, discern:
Which of these attachments are truly mine to be part of?
Where must I pull back, do or give less?
Which attachments must be released totally?
Take the time to write down some concrete steps toward the changes you need to make. Take one of those steps now! If you need support along the way, engage it! Maybe your support is a friend or coworker, family member or therapist. Or maybe it’s time to partner with a life coach where you’ll come to see with deep clarity the truth of your attachments and be held accountable to take those difficult next steps.
It is your life: What are you waiting for?