Keeping your work fresh

Author: Charlotte Evans, CST Practioner

Once you start working, doing what you love it can be super exciting.In many cases you'll have spent years of time training to do this work, not to mention money and emotional toil as well. So as the clients start to build up you feel totally vindicated in choosing this path.  However, once you get over the initial flush of success, the work can start to feel stale and like your stuck inside four walls for most of the day. 

Here are our top 3 tips to keep your work fresh, rewarding, and sustainable.

1. Connect with people inside and outside your industry:  I know that time becomes a huge factor in connecting with people outside of work, and often the last thing you want to do is be with people.  This is where the online community can be a real godsend. People who 'get' you and understand the unique pressures of this work are a great way of keeping you motivated.  We often just get stuck into the work and come up for air a few weeks, months or years later and realize we are burnt out, don't like our lives and that no one cares.  Get online and talk to people who are in a similar line of work, read blogs, listen to podcasts, there is such a lot of support out there!

2. Get treatment!  Regularly and often.  This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people making.  If you do not regularly get treatment yourself you will burn out quickly. Make time for this, at least once a month and more regularly than that if you can.    I get weekly osteopathy and also see a kinesiologist every two weeks. I try to get a Lomi Lomi massage once a month.  These are not indulgences.  These treatments are vital to keeping you well and enjoying your work.

3. Almost as a paradox to tip one is - be on your own and cultivate at least 30 minutes a day of silence.  You can meditate if that's your thing - you can cook, clean out a cupboard, fold washing, go for a walk, run, or do yoga, water the garden, stare into space.  This may be a challenge at first as your mind will race and you may want to fill that gap with 'noise'.  Start with 10 minutes and work your way up to 30.  Trust me on this your mind will need silence to process stuff.  You will sleep better, you will feel less stressed and you will be more relaxed.  Just give yourself the gift of silence and let your senses have a break from the constant onslaught of noise.  Oh and surfing the internet in silence does not count!  Surfing the net is visual noise! Turn off your phone, switch off the TV and computer and just be with yourself and silence.