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Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

HobbitSenior Contributor14 Aug 2014, 8:13 pm AEST

Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

Hi everyone,

I thought I would share with everyone a little journey i have gone through recently, and I think it's prudent to have this in the "Looking After Ourselves" forum thread. It's certianly my little lesson is looking after myself.

Lately I have been doing a lot. I work, I have also been going to university fulltime. I also have a 17 year old daughter, and there are some family issues going on. I also run a program on the weekends for people at risk of homelessness. Oh and there's also "life" to fir into the mix.

I noticed that while I was doing all these things, I was starting to do them with some sense of resentment. I felt I wasn't enjoying myself, it was actually starting to get difficult to begin each day.

So I felt something had to give. I made the decision to defer university for a semester, in order to help myself. I actually went through a real sense of failure at this, and it has taken me some time to get over this. I think the turning point was when i finally admitted to myself that I am human.

I felt that my choice was doing everything else in my life, and stop uni, or do uni and stop everything else in my life. I think my lesson here is that no one is a superman or superwoman, and i needed to include myself in that.

We seem very capable of saying these things to others, but often don't apply them to ourselves.

So, this is a bit of a personal story of overcoming a stumbling block. The stumbling block was thinking I could do everything, and nearly having a nervous breakdown. The process of overcoming it was in admitting I can't do everything. In admitting this to myself, I have found a huge sense of relief, and have actually become interested in life again.

I was wondering if anyone else has a similar story of overcoming their own personal stumbling blocks?

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In response to: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

JTSenior Contributor14 Sept 2014, 10:29 pm AEST

Re: Overcoming Stumbling Blocks

I remember talking to someone a few years ago when I snapped, he was actually my sons' case manager and he'd been trying to tell me I needed to toughen up and use some tough love on my son. Tough love incidentally snapped both of us so I will not be going back there but that's a story for another time. He said I needed to learn to say no. My response was that if I was able to say no, I would have said it years ago and none of this would ever have happened. I think learning to say no is the easier part of the equation and yes. the guilt is harder to come to terms with. The way I see it now though is that if I say no to keep in line with my personal values then it is a guilt free, justified no.