Could YOU be on the verge of a breakdown?
Take our quiz to find out — and, if you are on the edge, learn how to ‘press pause’ before it’s too late
ONe day in 2009 I woke up and found that I couldn’t get out of bed. After years of pushing myself to the limit, my body wouldn’t function.
I was in my mid 30s, running training companies in singapore. I loved my job. I had a great time socialising, but I wasn’t looking after myself. I was living in a lovely apartment, but I remember walking through the door and thinking, ‘I don’t really live here, because I’m away so often’.
I would send emails at 3am, then be up again at 6am. I was on a treadmill that I couldn’t see was having an effect.
Looking back, there were signs I chose to ignore. I was three stone heavier than I am today; my joints ached constantly. I found it hard to sleep, although I was exhausted. On the fateful day my body refused to wake up, I was halfway through running a five- day training programme for executives. It took a week before I’d recovered enough to get up, but only when my boss said ‘do you think you need a holiday?’ did it seep in that I might not be well.
I went on holiday to Cornwall. A week turned into three months. I went into lockdown, total retreat. I had no contact with the outside world. Once a week, I’d travel to London to see a therapist. I slept more than I could ever imagine.
My experience isn’t that unusual. the World Health Organisation predicts that work-related stress, burnout and depression will top the list of the world’s most prevalent diseases by 2020. Increasingly, none of us can truly get away from the office — we check our phones on average 221 times a day.
Last year, stress accounted for 45 per cent of UK working days lost and 37 per cent of work-related illnesses. so I started Pause retreats as a way to help other people to recognise the signs of burnout. they’re the same whether you’re a mother ploughing through an impossible to-do list or negotiating a high-powered deal.
5 STRESS BUSTERS
trY these exercises — they’re designed to help you discover what you need in order to be happier. Answers may not come instantly, but by allowing yourself to focus on the questions, you will make space to tap into your intuition.
1. A MICRO/MACRO WALK
tAKe a walk and pay attention to your surroundings by zooming in and out between the vastness of the landscape and the tiny details.
Go to the countryside, a park, or a river, and choose a path. As you walk, you might focus on the sky and then on a droplet of water on