Confessions to My Shoulder Angel
When is it appropriate to mind your own business, and when is it not? But what
if you’re the person whose “business” needs minding? In this article, Claire Bibby
discusses ways to balance the demands of your busy lifestyle by noticing how you
respond to stress, and how you can manage it in healthy, sustainable ways.
L
Claire is an award-winning Australian and
ife is stressful, and grumbling about how busy
we are is a badge of honour to some. But what
happens when our time is so focused on solving
other people's problems, that we do so at the expense of
our own psychological health, and we forget that there's
only so far we can stretch ourselves like a rubber band?
International Keynote Speaker, Author,
Mentor, Mediator and Arbitrator, offering over 25
years expertise in providing a range of strategic,
financial, governance, legal, innovation, dispute
Are we sometimes so caught up in what’s going on
around us that we miss the signs that something's not
right within ourselves? Do we ignore the angel on our
shoulder, telling us that we need to stop and look after
ourselves, when the devil on our other shoulder is telling
us we simply don’t have the time?
resolution, mentoring and team leadership
expertise.
Stress is an all-encompassing phenomenon, and
Australia’s Biggest Mental Health Check-In, conducted
by mental health technology company Medibio, recently
found that a third of corporate Australia is feeling
stressed, anxious and depressed.
We all experience stress every day and at various levels,
and not all stress is harmful. Some stress can, in fact,
be positive, challenging people to act in creative and
imaginative ways. But when stress is chronic, it can be
damaging and leads to serious health problems that even
the busiest of us sometimes choose to ignore.
According to Beyond Blue, 3 million Australians are
living with anxiety or depression, and roughly one in five
individuals will be affected by the illness. And while it's
not always possible to avoid stress, it is possible to look at
both the causes and how we respond, so that we can deal
with both ends of our burning candle.
AUTHOR
CLAIRE E BIBBY
Principal
[email protected]
0418923396
24
Women’s Network Magazine
Being aware of your psychological well-being is a
continuous process of seeking to thrive positively in
all dimensions of your life and deserves your time and
attention, no matter how busy you are. Our professional,
emotional, social and physical needs all overlap. It is a
rare person who can compartmentalise their life and not
take their stresses of work back to their home and vice-
versa.