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Snapped this at a mountain retreat away from the city
I met up with friends yesterday to do some catching up. This one friend shared how her ex-boyfriend got shot at and died last year (which I already know about) to the shock of the other friend listening (coz the latter did not know about it until yesterday). The story about mortality seemed to have made the other friend listening more melancholic than she already was. As a result, it encouraged her to share how stressed out she was at work. She was clocking in more hours than usual. She was also doing more tasks than usual because the company was experiencing cost-cutting and there aren't enough people to work.

After listening to her for countless of minutes about her burden, I asked her how her sleep was lately. The question sort of got her thinking deep like she never thought of sleep as something that she needs to think about. The pause was epic, but she answered eventually with four hours. I told her that four hours isn't enough. Quality sleep can only happen on a regular basis when the average hour is six. She gave lots of reasons why she would always have a hard time falling to sleep. She went on to share that she's got lots of things to do also to even add two more hours to her existing sleep schedule.

I then remembered reading about the principle of adding to get less in a magazine that I bought a few weeks ago. It mentioned there how one can lose weight by eating the right food which normally goes against the usual advice of not eating to weigh less. With that in mind, I suggested my friend to add one enjoyable and relaxing activity to her daily schedule for her to strike a balance in her full schedule. For all she knows, she may be overdoing something there that's making her stressed out. The new activity does not have to be big or elaborate. It can be anything from mental meditation to getting a massage.

She remembered attempting to do scrapbooking but she would always end up not getting started at all. I further suggested that she can do it next time with a friend or someone else who's an expert with scrapbooking. Another person can bring wonders to the dynamic. It's usually what works for the person anyway.




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