I've just celebrated my 41st birthday, I still feel 25 but something struck me this morning:
If I could speak to my 25 year old self I'd tell her the following:
There's never been a stressful situation that I wish I hadn't got out of sooner.
There have been many stressful situations in my life - that's no different to anyone else, and some people have had far more thrown at them than I ever have, and of course, we all know stress comes in many forms - some is good, some bad.
I'm not really talking about the good stuff here, like taking a risk, trying something new or doing something inherently dangerous and emerging unscathed. Relentlessly pursuing a goal can become draining eventually, but it's probably worth it: good stress is positive, gives us impetus, helps us achieve our dreams. The great results of that are not in doubt.
Unfortunately, more often stress is bad: energy sapping, depressing, causing anxiety, eroding self-esteem, taking the joy out of life. There is nothing good about it, and yet so many of us put up with stress every day, for months and years and never do anything about it. That's the stuff which does so much damage both to the mind and to the body: stress is terrible for PCOS - perhaps the root cause of all hormone disorder. It cannot be underestimated.
The Time is Now
As I look back now, there has never been a stressful situation that I'm not glad to have walked away from. Of all those that I've walked away from, there's never been a stressful situation that I wish I hadn't got out of earlier, even if the remedy for the situation meant going through pain and short term suffering in order to make things better. I guess the point of this post is simple:
I firmly believe that there's nothing to be gained from waiting - there is never an easy time to take drastic steps, never a day when those conversations or changes are going to be OK - they just have to be done.
Your future is at stake. There's not a day to be lost. Every day that you put up with a bad situation, you subtract one from being happy, reaching your goals, finding fulfillment. That's the case for any person. When dealing with PCOS and other endocrine disorders, also remember that for every day that you're stressed, your health will be adversely affected, and given that the effects are cumulative, not only are you're making your eventual recovery harder in the long term, but you're also making yourself sicker in the short term.
I know you're probably thinking "yeah, well, I wish I could but I can't because......" That's just excuses. You can, and if you care about yourself and those around you, you will, because a happy you improves the lives of everyone around you.
Tough call huh?
I agree, it is tough. There's been loads of things which I've put off to my own detriment.
My reasons were always that I didn't want to let anyone down, that by sheer force of willpower I could overcome anything or that I was hoping against hope that everything would be alright in the end. Unfortunately, that's just not how it goes sometimes.
Be Honest with Yourself:
I've spent months looking at situations, hoping they would improve yet inside, knowing, deep down that they weren't going to work out. That little voice in the pit of my stomach already telling me that I was on to a loser had my best interests at heart: I ignored it and persisted, simply wasting energy, hope and optimism.
We all have things in our life which are no good for us. Rather than sticking our heads in the sand and trying to ignore that "inner voice", we'd be better off facing up to problems, making the tough calls and getting on with the change. If you're thinking "that's not me", either you know exactly what I'm talking about and have already made all the tough calls you can, or you're not being honest with yourself. My advice would be to get real, identify the issues and stop sugar coating things - you're only doing yourself a disservice.
Whether it's financial worries, a dysfunctional relationship in which you feel trapped or unable to fulfill your potential, a job that you hate, a home environment which makes you miserable or a past trauma that continues to haunt you because you never dealt with it, that situation has to go. Whatever the consequences. Simply taking steps to free yourself will improve your stress levels enormously, because making change liberates us, opens the door to a new future, highlights all the possibilities.
Everyone deserves to be happy. It's time to let go, move on and take your chances. There is no greater gift you can give yourself than to make yourself happy and your hormones will thank you for it. Your body will thank you.
Protect your future self, your health, well-being and all round happiness.
Identify what's stressing you out and eliminate it now.
I firmly believe that there's nothing to be gained from waiting - there is never an easy time to take drastic steps, never a day when those conversations or changes are going to be OK - they just have to be done.
Your future is at stake. There's not a day to be lost. Every day that you put up with a bad situation, you subtract one from being happy, reaching your goals, finding fulfillment. That's the case for any person. When dealing with PCOS and other endocrine disorders, also remember that for every day that you're stressed, your health will be adversely affected, and given that the effects are cumulative, not only are you're making your eventual recovery harder in the long term, but you're also making yourself sicker in the short term.
I know you're probably thinking "yeah, well, I wish I could but I can't because......" That's just excuses. You can, and if you care about yourself and those around you, you will, because a happy you improves the lives of everyone around you.
Tough call huh?
I agree, it is tough. There's been loads of things which I've put off to my own detriment.
My reasons were always that I didn't want to let anyone down, that by sheer force of willpower I could overcome anything or that I was hoping against hope that everything would be alright in the end. Unfortunately, that's just not how it goes sometimes.
Be Honest with Yourself:
I've spent months looking at situations, hoping they would improve yet inside, knowing, deep down that they weren't going to work out. That little voice in the pit of my stomach already telling me that I was on to a loser had my best interests at heart: I ignored it and persisted, simply wasting energy, hope and optimism.
We all have things in our life which are no good for us. Rather than sticking our heads in the sand and trying to ignore that "inner voice", we'd be better off facing up to problems, making the tough calls and getting on with the change. If you're thinking "that's not me", either you know exactly what I'm talking about and have already made all the tough calls you can, or you're not being honest with yourself. My advice would be to get real, identify the issues and stop sugar coating things - you're only doing yourself a disservice.
Whether it's financial worries, a dysfunctional relationship in which you feel trapped or unable to fulfill your potential, a job that you hate, a home environment which makes you miserable or a past trauma that continues to haunt you because you never dealt with it, that situation has to go. Whatever the consequences. Simply taking steps to free yourself will improve your stress levels enormously, because making change liberates us, opens the door to a new future, highlights all the possibilities.
Everyone deserves to be happy. It's time to let go, move on and take your chances. There is no greater gift you can give yourself than to make yourself happy and your hormones will thank you for it. Your body will thank you.
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