priorities and healthy boundaries
• Get easily frustrated
• Detach emotionally from close relationships
• A constant sense of sadness
• Emotional exhaustion
• Physical exhaustion
• Loss of interest in activities
• Increase in physical illness
• Absent days from work
• Poor quality to sleep. Never wake up refreshed.
• Constant sense worry
• Feeling nervous
• Poor appetite
• Feeling hopeless
• Loss of enthusiasm
• Loss of a sense of purpose Until the issue causing stress is removed, you will continue to experience burnout. Not attending to our wellbeing can lead to chronic illness such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, stomach ulcers etc.
It is a fact that up to 80 % of illnesses that people see a physician for are related in some way to lifestyle issues such as stress, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, etc.
Healthy Boundaries On the same continuum, it is important to establish healthy boundaries. What are boundaries? Boundaries are simply the space that you create around yourself. Think about it like your‘ personal space’. It’ s the space between you and other people. Even from people that are close in your lifelike your children, your spouse, your parents, siblings etc. It’ s where you get to be who you are without worrying about others. It’ s an imaginary line that people should not cross. Have you established your boundaries? Do others in your life clearly know what your boundaries are?
A lot of people-especially women- are not clear about what their boundaries are. And they assume that others should have known what their boundaries are. It is important to not only establish boundaries but also communicate what those boundaries are. This causes less stress due to misunderstandings.
And communicating boundaries does not have to be confrontational or in any way rude. Healthy boundaries support your wellbeing.
For instance in order to make your wellbeing your number one priority, you may establish a boundary that no one smokes or drinks alcohol in your home.
Or you may have a boundary that no one raises his or her voice at you for any reason.
One of my personal boundaries is that when I am at work I do not answer my cellphone unless it is my immediate family calling. I let calls go into my voicemail and sift through from there. I will respond to only text messages if I feel the need to. I give my callers the option of communicating with me via email by providing my email address on my voicemail message. This creates is less disruption to my day.
I communicate these boundaries in a clear fashion but I am in no way rude about them.
The easiest way to determine where you need to establish a boundary is to check what are some things that currently irritate you. Anything that irritates you needs to be addressed immediately. It may be a friend who likes to call just as you are about to have dinner with your family. Or the boss who stops in at the end of the day and gives you an urgent assignment that has to be completed by 8 AM the following morning.
Begin to put boundaries in place. Let the people around you know what they are.
To your health and wellbeing
Dr Eno Nsima-Obot is a board certified specialist in internal medicine. She graduated from the University of Calabar, Nigeria in 1987. She is passionate about helping people live healthy and wholesome lives by making simple small changes. She is a published author, speaker and lifestyle coach. An avid lifelong learner, in her spare time, she runs half and full marathons, enjoys yoga, and dabbles into photography. For more information about Dr Eno log onto www. doctoreno. com invests. ng- MARCH / APRIL 2017 25