High-engagement, over stimulated days and life-phases need balancing out and slowing down just like the body craves a seven-eight hours sleep cycle daily to reboot. The mind and body crave this cyclical revival and we have learnt to heed this need conditioned by the day and night ritual of Earth’s rotation. There is another level to this switching off that we don’t heed as easily — the need to switch off from habits, recurring patterns, behaviour and ambition that outlive their tenure inside our heads. You would think that an ambition is never a barrier, yet one that has existed without you inching closer to it in incremental ways; or when it no longer connect to your soul, has served its purpose in your growth.
There is no science to assess when an ambition becomes a lump in the throat. A cultivated practice of self-reflection can help in the choice to either set it aside or scrap it forever. Self-observation helps in noticing if you are frequently pulling back and passing off opportunities that would ordinarily be attractive in pursuit of your dream.
Yet all withdrawals are not the same. Many of you write to me experiencing tugs of withdrawal for indescribable reasons and I will attempt to offer some clues to recognise what it could be:
Revive and recentre
This is the most productive and creative call for withdrawal. Many accounts suggest that great creative works emerged out of periods of self-imposed withdrawal from public eye. For us, too, intermissions of pulling back are best to go inward, reflect, reassess and realign with new ideas and desires for the future. Returning to active life is naturally characterised by energy and renewed purpose.
Physical burnout
Withdrawal demanded by dire lack of physical rest and recovery, borne off chaotic demands, long schedules, long work hours, lack of pause and reboot rituals and over stimulated lives. The only way out is to enforce a complete pause and get away to rejuvenate. Saying ‘no’ is a vital part of revival from burnout.
Emotional withdrawal
Emotions can make us hide and reclusive from social contact. Stress due to a breakup, looming deadline, or psychological worry such as college admission or finding a job can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produce physiological changes. A combination of reactions to stress is the ‘fight-or-flight’ response, which occurs as a survival mechanism, enabling you to react quickly to worsening situations. Often, social withdrawal is a flight response to safeguard our wellbeing.
Depression
At the outset, depression needs medical attention. It is a serious mood disorder that interferes with everyday activities. Losing the will for daily chores and attention to self, a persistent state of lethargy, sadness, emptiness, overwhelming hopelessness, inability to cope with simple tasks are some common signs to know it. The foremost action is to reach out to a therapist or certified counsellor without delay and sign up for expert care.
Gloria Steinem offers a simple cue to differentiate depression from the rest ‘When you’re depressed, nothing has meaning, when you’re sad everything does’. And more than anything, heed your symptom, dear readers.
The writer is a life coach, blogger and author who simplifies the patterns and archetypes she encounters at work and in life. nivedita@lifealigncoaching.com
