'Balance'.......
It’s the key word I gave myself when I started making plans for this year. Mainly I guess it was about looking at and creating and maintaining balance in as many areas of my life as I could ….work (types of work), social, personal, emotional, exercise, diet, energy, relationships, study, learning …with the aim of promoting my health, well being, happiness and resilience in general to as optimum level as possible.
At the beginning of February I returned back to nursing part time after a 2.5 year break, and since then I’ve noticed that many of the good habits I had in place for creating this balance have slid! Most strikingly, I’ve virtually done no work on my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design at all in that time…
So, 3 months into my new job, I’ve been having a bit of a review and reflect about how to get a more equilibrium back into my days and plans......
I’m really enjoying my role as a specialist palliative care nurse, but the nature of the work plus the fact that I have had a significant break from nursing has meant that is has taken a fair chunk of my time and energy, even though the post is part time.
At the same time as I started my new job, Holly also started new work and our role as carers for the Elders changed. In addition we were still midst the farming winter routine (ie animals need feeding everyday) and have just finished the very busy lambing time.
Here, in the middle of May I can look back at the last few weeks and realise that my confidence and skill as a nurse have really developed again over this time and that I am needing to put less of my resources into this part of my life. Also, lambing is just about finished and farming ’summer’ has arrived, freeing up more routine time in day to day activities. As we head towards the summer solstice there are maximum day light hours and associated energy. The activities that usually happen here over the next few weeks/ months (edible gardening, wood processing and moving, sheep clipping and social events with friends and family) usually happen in chunks of good weather time.
I’ve already kick started some good balance promoting activities for my work patterns and health & well being; daily plans for our various work, more regular exercise, better, varied food, listening to novels on landrover journeys, more focused use of social media, regular space to ground and pause, time to observe the sun and moon patterns .....and revisiting my ‘plan for 2014’
Taking on board the above, and with the aim of giving ‘balance’ another boost, I’ve come up with the following plan for my Diploma work
Get myself back into the routine of writing for my Diploma again with a weekly blog post.
Revisit my Action Learning Pathway and tweak the timing/plan for the write up of the rest of my designs…re plan and schedule tutorial support
Spend at least 30 minutes each day actually writing up design work in order to maintain focus. Aim for at least 2 days a week where I spend 2-3 hours doing this.
Re-establish more regular contact and meet ups with the Lakes and Dales Diploma Apprentices, my fab local peer group…we can be very motived when we want to be!
Reflect...on how my Diploma work is going, while walking the pack...especially if i haven't had time to actually get anything written down for some time
Be more mindful of how much I have (and am) getting out of my Diploma journey…I’ve come quite near to quitting it recently, but really of course I don’t want to, I just needed to work through this evaluation and tweak to propel it in a more onwards direction again.
So, here goes !...first up, more regular blogging from me again. Happening right now xx
It’s the key word I gave myself when I started making plans for this year. Mainly I guess it was about looking at and creating and maintaining balance in as many areas of my life as I could ….work (types of work), social, personal, emotional, exercise, diet, energy, relationships, study, learning …with the aim of promoting my health, well being, happiness and resilience in general to as optimum level as possible.
At the beginning of February I returned back to nursing part time after a 2.5 year break, and since then I’ve noticed that many of the good habits I had in place for creating this balance have slid! Most strikingly, I’ve virtually done no work on my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design at all in that time…
So, 3 months into my new job, I’ve been having a bit of a review and reflect about how to get a more equilibrium back into my days and plans......
I’m really enjoying my role as a specialist palliative care nurse, but the nature of the work plus the fact that I have had a significant break from nursing has meant that is has taken a fair chunk of my time and energy, even though the post is part time.
At the same time as I started my new job, Holly also started new work and our role as carers for the Elders changed. In addition we were still midst the farming winter routine (ie animals need feeding everyday) and have just finished the very busy lambing time.
Here, in the middle of May I can look back at the last few weeks and realise that my confidence and skill as a nurse have really developed again over this time and that I am needing to put less of my resources into this part of my life. Also, lambing is just about finished and farming ’summer’ has arrived, freeing up more routine time in day to day activities. As we head towards the summer solstice there are maximum day light hours and associated energy. The activities that usually happen here over the next few weeks/ months (edible gardening, wood processing and moving, sheep clipping and social events with friends and family) usually happen in chunks of good weather time.
I’ve already kick started some good balance promoting activities for my work patterns and health & well being; daily plans for our various work, more regular exercise, better, varied food, listening to novels on landrover journeys, more focused use of social media, regular space to ground and pause, time to observe the sun and moon patterns .....and revisiting my ‘plan for 2014’
Taking on board the above, and with the aim of giving ‘balance’ another boost, I’ve come up with the following plan for my Diploma work
Get myself back into the routine of writing for my Diploma again with a weekly blog post.
Revisit my Action Learning Pathway and tweak the timing/plan for the write up of the rest of my designs…re plan and schedule tutorial support
Spend at least 30 minutes each day actually writing up design work in order to maintain focus. Aim for at least 2 days a week where I spend 2-3 hours doing this.
Re-establish more regular contact and meet ups with the Lakes and Dales Diploma Apprentices, my fab local peer group…we can be very motived when we want to be!
Reflect...on how my Diploma work is going, while walking the pack...especially if i haven't had time to actually get anything written down for some time
Be more mindful of how much I have (and am) getting out of my Diploma journey…I’ve come quite near to quitting it recently, but really of course I don’t want to, I just needed to work through this evaluation and tweak to propel it in a more onwards direction again.
So, here goes !...first up, more regular blogging from me again. Happening right now xx