Start/stop/sustain: a mid year review
I've been feeling overwhelmed these past two weeks, seeing the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel sometimes flickering, sometimes blowing out, and I can't see a clear answer or an apparent end.
The above small prose from @Kyung Hee feels like a reminder to breathe; that "saying no is a practice like anything else", while it can be uncomfortable and hard, it becomes "more natural with practice".
Had a work retreat where we used the start, stop, sustain framework, and if I could put my current headspace in those three buckets, it may look like this:
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Stop: Saying yes / worrying about what others think / eating so much fried chicken
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Start: Exercising (especially since my new sneakers are on the way) / being okay with solitude
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Sustain: Know, respect and speak up for my boundaries / doing more creative work to let my mind wander / believing in my self worth
It helped that last Friday, a bunch of friends dragged me to go cycling at East Coast Park. I had this thought when I was desperately trying to maintain balance on two wheels: Why do I let the claws of others get to me, when I am good as I am, and I know my worth?
Turning these pages
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I ticked off more than a few of these ways of addressing burnout over the past weeks including creating blobby art, laughing so hard with friends, and even having a good ol' cry. F'real. So currently, I am at a scale of 3 for burn out, instead of 8.
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If you're into art and science, as I know one guy on this mailing list is, I lol'd really hard seeing Edith Zimmerman's doodle on old art classics like Magritte's The Son of Man, following the news of the Rijksmuseum's use of AI to "restore" the missing part of Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch.
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To those who still struggle with figuring out what their boundaries really are, and if they have any, here's a simple way by @jdesmondharris:
https://twitter.com/jdesmondharris/status/1408868731707555840
Life is serendipitous
In 2014, I was tasked to find local artists who could create "Singapore art" which could be used (paid, of course) for corporate gifts from my company. Fast forward 7 years later, through the heng suay joy of Instagram and a relatively good memory, I reconnected with the artist @whereartjon, who is now a freelance designer in his own right. So I bought this digital print from him just because it reminds me of home, lost and present.
I'm here,
Medhā