Being in your funk so you can get out of it

Do you ever just have one of those days? You know, the ones where you can’t seem to get out of your funk. I say funk because I can think of no other word that encapsulates the feelings of apathy, frustration, anger, boredom, sadness, distraction, impatience, woe. Well there are more I am sure, but I am not here to be a Thesaurus. What I am here to be is real.

So I decided that I would post when in a funk. Risky you might say. Some would say this will come back to bite me. Others may say don’t share your funk with me, it might be catching. You are right. On one level if I focus too much on my funk then I stay in it. On another level if I hang with you and let this foul smelling energy waft your way you will eventually feel it to. It is not my wish to stay in nor to share it.

Instead I want to highlight a few points that may help you:

A: feel OK when you happen to fall into one yourself, and

B: are around a person you care about who also is in one.

Life balance, Personal journey, Self awareness, Self care, WellbeingJenn Shallvey26 March 2010

There is no excuse for being a bully

Bullies are everywhere-on the road, at your workplace, in some people’s homes even families. You may not be a bully but I bet once or more in your life you expressed a bully streak. You know, your anger got out of control and you took it out on another person. Yet likely you had a great social system of friends, family, teachers, work colleagues who helped you back in line. Maybe you even had unconditional love and worked through this aberrant behavior before it took hold and developed into a habit.

Some unfortunate ones in our society do not have this help. They are either so far gone or allowed to get away with the behavior that it is too late. Not too late to change, but likely too late to have quality relationships that help the bully repent, recover and return to being a decent human being. Or more likely, lacking in the resources and people dedicated to helping them turn around.

Communication, Everyday Leadership, Real conversations, Self care, TrustJenn Shallvey8 March 2010

Be real

Children remind us what it means to be real.

A bad fall

Today I and my husband had the unfortunate experience of taking my son to emergency following a nasty fall on the football field. End result he had a broken collarbone. Being a Sunday, the process of diagnosing and treating him took about 6 hours. So I had a lot of time to observe life in the pediatric emergency room at our local hospital.

We were one of 9 patients being looked after this afternoon. On staff were nurses and other staff helping. There were two doctors that I could observe. I had seen them before on other visits to emergency. This place is familiar to a lot of parents of young children.

Self careJenn Shallvey7 July 2008

You can give too much

A while back I was visiting my GP for a general check up. My GP is one of those amazing people who dedicates herself to the profession. She not only provides the in-clinic services but also lectures at university, serves on medical councils and boards and gets involved in community work. She is a great role model for other doctors.

At the time of my visit I was in a particularly busy stretch. The workload and life demands were overwhelming me (yes I am human and just like you). Given that my GP worked long hours every day I asked how she did it. What she shared with me were some words of wisdom which I now pass on to you with my own twist.

First of all she has this mantra that she repeats when there is just too much and not enough time. She says:

“I am worth more than my piles of work.”

Self careJenn Shallvey25 June 2008