drcarolynee - finding the answers to health and happiness
drcarolynee - finding the answers to health and happiness
In all my 10+ years of running, I had never taken to beach running until 2020. I had first started with running on the famous gravel track around the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, enjoying the sound of the forgiving crunch under my feet. In Sydney …
I’m going with a surfing metaphor this week. I am a terrible surfer. My husband, however, is rather nifty on a shortboard. He talks about the waves, the process of surfing, staying up on the board, and improving his paddling quite a bit. And I …
I remember the day I burnt out last year. It was 20th October, 2020. It had been an intense year and the end of the year wasn’t going to let up. Social and other activities had started to ramp up again. On the weekend, I took my 7 year old to a birthday party, and my 10 year old to an extra music lesson in preparation for her exam. On Monday I spent hours practising a five-minute speech for our University’s Research Impact competition. I was the department finalist and competing against 15 other researchers. I recited my speech over and over as I took my kids to school, picked them up, and went through the day. (My kids NEVER want to hear about research impact again). On the day I nailed the speech, didn’t win, and felt a mix of disappointment and relief and pride. I didn’t know it but I had used up almost my last tiny bit of reserve that day.
The end of the academic year is always brutal and mine was no different. The adrenaline kept me going right up until submitting a large grant on the last day of the academic year. I really needed the holidays. I woke up on the first day of my holidays with a sense of hope. I spent the day with my family, just having an amazing time. As I took the laundry out I remember seeing the sunset and feeling a palpable sense of joy. Life is good, I thought.
That evening the Northern Beaches stay at home order was announced. I was in the supermarket car park. I cried when I read the news. Ugly cried. Then I went back in to the supermarket and bought food for the next few days. And chocolate, two bars of it.
Being in lockdown on the Northern Beaches is not difficult. The beach stayed open. You just can’t keep a Northern Beaches away from, well, our beaches! We had each other. We had an enormous turkey to finish. We did Christmas. We surfed, ran, baked, and napped our way through the 2.5 week lockdown. When it ended, I started back at work. But I wasn’t ok.
I couldn’t feel anything positive about work. It was an absolute struggle. I did what I needed to do – but it came with a lot of effort and little, if any, enjoyment. I felt disillusioned, like there was no point, like I was not making any impact at all. At one point I actually didn’t care. I started looking at the job ads, but it wasn’t another job I wanted. I actually wanted to retire. I fantasised about quitting completely and not working at all. What would it be like? I wondered. I imagined spending my days dropping the kids off, then pottering around the house, ensuring it was clean and well-maintained all the time, maybe going out for coffee or some shopping before picking them up again. No rushing around to fit in household chores after work. Bliss. The days would fly by. At one point, I realised that perhaps I was experiencing a mid life crisis. Is this what happens? You get tired of the constant hard work, the achieving, the doing?
My moods were a bit flat but otherwise ok. I would have described them as “glum” at times. I wasn’t distressed and I could keep going – it was just hard work and fairly joyless. Is this burnout? I wondered. I thought I knew about burnout. I had given workshops on it, for goodness sake, and was asked to address the Healthcare Summit on GP burnout. I had read all the things. I knew about burnout! But experiencing it was different. Burnout wasn’t a nice neat diagnosis with its three dimensions of cynicism, exhaustion, and
Dear Star, You turned 11 yesterday. You wanted a sleepover with three of your best friends. Eleven short years after you made me a mother and were completely dependent on me to survive and thrive, all you wanted was to scream and giggle in your …
Every day I wake up and feel like a failure. Today I decided that has to stop. I’ve somehow only just realized that these beliefs about myself are, in the balance of things, really not helpful. That’s an understatement, to be fair. It’s …
Once again it is RUOK day, and I can bet you that if you asked anyone who is alive right now, the chances of a “No” answer would be pretty high.
We all know the reasons for that.
Today I want to talk about grief.
Grief is “a strong emotion that appears when we face loss” from something that we have formed a strong emotional connection to. There are a few different types of grief, including anticipatory grief (when we anticipate losing something or someone), and disenfranchised grief (when society does not recognize your loss as being “worthy” of grieving over). We don’t just grieve when we lose someone – we may be grieving a loss of identity, sense of safety, autonomy, or dreams and expectations.
Six months after the pandemic was announced, and after the adrenaline has worn off, after all the sourdough has been baked, we are all dealing with some kind of grief. For some of us, the grief is substantial, all encompassing, it has taken over our world and swallowed us up completely and we cannot see the way out, especially in the harsh reality of Lockdown 2.0. We are drowning in our grief. For others, the grief is partial and compartmentalized and pops up at unexpected times.
The experience of grief is a very humbling one, that reminds me, in a very raw way, of what it is truly like to be human. Usually, grief is experienced in relative isolation. Other people aren’t involved in our grief or if they are, they experience it differently. Now, we are all grieving together, though we might be grieving different things.
Many of us are grieving the fact that we cannot continue on with the rituals and habits that we were used to. Family dinners, family holidays, birthdays, catching up with friends. Being able to be face to face with someone we love. We also grieve the lost opportunities in the future. Not being able to celebrate a special birthday. Religious festivals. Weddings and funerals, graduations. All the glue that bonds us together as a family, a community, a society. For those of us with family who live in other states or countries, there is the grief of not being able to see our loved ones, and not knowing when it will be safe to travel again.
Heck, I couldn’t even post a photo of two hands holding each other, because that’s not appropriate in the time of COVID.
Even in the relative freedoms of where I live (Sydney) there are reminders of how life has changed. We count heads carefully before organising a get together. We check the weather because it’s safer for us to meet outdoors. Choir and wind instruments are banned at school. Awards at assemblies appear without us being able to have the satisfaction of seeing our child walk up and receive it from the Principal. We haven’t attended a birthday party for months. This year’s Book Week Parade will not be seen by any parents, unless on Zoom. And while I complain about it every year, there is something wistful about seeing one’s child parade around the school oval dressed as a little witch, a Pokemon Trainer, or (this year’s attempt) – Moby Dick. It’s a fragment of life that we put away in our treasure chest of memories of “when you were little”.
But these are all very small things compared to the businesses that are closing, dropping like flies, across our country especially in Melbourne, where they must remain closed due to the ongoing high community transmission. And the grief that holds me down the most is that I am separated from my parents and family and friends in other States and countries, and I do not know if I will see my parents again because they are elderly and time is not on our side.
The grief of COVID is different for everyone. Noone’s grief is more or less valid than someone else’s. For some of us, there is the grief of losing someone dear due to COVID. Losing the ability to make a living – the disappearance of an entire industry with all its trappings. This has many consequences – loss of identity, a lifestyle, a purpose, friendships at work, maybe even a home. Loss of our habits and our routine. Loss of somewhere to go every day. Loss of hopes and dreams.
We have lost the ability to collectively celebrate and collectively mourn. Gone are the weddings where dancing and toasting, hugging and kissing were the norm. Gone is the ability to mourn together, instead there is the counting of heads and the Zoom links to a wake.
So today, after you ask someone else “RUOK?” I’d like you to also ask “What have you lost and how does that make you feel?”
How can you help someone else with their grief?
Here are some ideas.
And as for yourself?
And for us, as a community?
Let’s come together to collectively grieve and mourn, and support each other. Be kind on social media. Be patient with every human you have an interaction with. This will take time. Allow it to happen. Keep on sheltering in place, if it’s not safe to be outdoors. You are saving lives, as much as it hurts to do so. I’m so sorry.
Some day we’ll look back together and feel a lot stronger. In the meantime, keep asking RUOK (not just today) and be prepared to sit by someone’s side (figuratively) while they tell you about what they’ve lost.
X
If you need immediate help please contact your GP, your nearest hospital, or Lifeline on 131114
https://coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au
Well, hello there! I feel very guilty for not following up with Part 2 of this series in a timely manner. Thank you for reading and commenting, and sharing amongst your fellow PhD mothers (and dads). The response to my first post on how to …
When you came along, I thought you would be different. I thought you would be a halo of peaceful luminescence, interspersed with cute yet amusing events such as laughing at how little sleep I had had. I thought my baby would look at me and …
Today marks 28 days since I started working from home and 21 days since my children have been home from school. To sum up the ups and downs of the past week, it’s been something like this:
Week 1: Checking the news about 4 hours a day, lots of meetings about managing the pandemic, dealing with PPE and COVID swabs at the clinic, lots of anxiety, going into a bit of a rage every time there is a press conference and schools STILL aren’t closed.
Week 2: School is finally closed. Reading the news 3 hours a day, rest of the day seems to be spent figuring out the school schedule, checking second grade maths and English, and wondering why teachers prescribe activities that require scissors, or “play this fun game with an adult”.
Week 3: Everything is changing, every single day. Overwhelmed. Checking news 2.5 hours each day. School schedule is a little easier but still feel like head is about to explode for at least 8 hours each day.
Week 4: Checking news 1.5 hrs a day. School holidays finally begin on Friday. Head begins to clear. Finally! Spend the weekend sitting in the sun, reading, drinking tea, and napping.
The Easter weekend has been a lifesaver and has given me enough space to think beyond the next 24 hours. I hope it has been the same for you. This break has got me thinking to a very important time: the end of lockdown, whenever that might be. Is it 3 or 6 months? or 12 months? Whenever it is, I’m now ready for the marathon of being at home. And I’m finally ready to go beyond survival mode. (If you’re not ready yet, don’t panic. You will emerge once your basic needs are met and you feel safe.)
This week I am thinking about the person that emerges at the end of lockdown. What will she have learned? What’s her health like? Her mind? Is she at peace? Has she made changes? Will she go back to where she was before?
I call this person Future Me. (Or maybe Post Lockdown Me). I care about this person very much. She’s counting on me right now.
I don’t think Future Me wants to go back to Previous Me life. Previous Me was always very stressed, juggling too many balls, taking work phone calls while driving children from birthday parties to swimming classes, sending emails at pickup time, always tired. Previous Me had staff who said “I wish you would take more time for yourself” and “I wish you wouldn’t take on so much“. Previous Me outsourced like a boss, but the end result of all this carefully orchestrated planning creates an illusion that Previous Me could do anything. Previous Me got to Wednesday and felt like she had nothing left to give.
I want Future Me to be happy, healthy, and to feel like she has the capacity to give to others without suffering some kind of minor collapse. Future Me’s cup needs to be filled. I’m starting with staying physically healthy. Being in lockdown means that our exercise habits have to change to adapt, and yet, I am finding that not commuting buys me more time. I’m focussing on strength training because that can be done indoors, for free, with my existing kettlebells. (I love kettlebells!) My go-to Youtube channel for kettlebell and other workouts is Bodyfit By Amy. I am sure you have your favourites, but if you don’t, give Amy’s a go!
Fun fact: did you know that strength training is recommended twice a week in our national physical activity guidelines, and builds muscle (therefore boosting your metabolism)?
Future Me also needs Present Me to eat well and to not succumb to too much stress baking. Baking has been a coping mechanism of mine ever since I was in high school. Sadly, I cannot bring the leftovers to work now, and so to keep Future Me happy, I’ll have to keep an eye on how many funfetti cakes I end up making with the children. I also did the CSIRO Healthy Diet score to see what I needed to change in my diet. I’ve been recommended to have more low-fat dairy and fruit, and so I’m focussing on these for Future Me. I know Future Me will be thankful, particularly with reducing the risk of nasty things like osteoporosis.
So when you’re ready to come out of survival, take some time to think about Future You. Not only does it orient us beyond Netflix and donuts (which only benefit Present You), it gives us hope, and extends our vision beyond what we need to get through the next day, or week. Of course, if you can’t do this yet, it means that the very thing you should be doing is just getting through today. That’s absolutely ok. I’m not experiencing the intense stresses that many are facing. I still have a job, I have company at home, everyone is well.
But if you can, just picture the Future You in your mind, and do what it takes to look after him or her. I have a hunch you won’t regret it. For me, I’ll continue to enjoy the stress relieving benefits of baking, but only on special occasions.
X
March 11. That was the last time I was on the outside. For work, anyway. It seems so long ago now, a world away. I had just finished chairing a symposium of >100 people – an unimaginable number of people! It seemed like we were …
