Unplug yourself – it’s magic!

“Almost everything will work better if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”

I love this quote from author, Anne Lamont.

Last month, I wrote about my addiction to filling far too much of the 24-hour day – a huge proportion with work – and not holding back on the socialising and granny-ing – so my brain seems to be permanently wired.

Sleep is poor, because even when I clear my brain for rest, through breathing exercises and eventually letting go of thoughts, I will wake up again with my brain whirring. I have found myself overthinking stuff, simple things taking much longer than they should to achieve, with imposter syndrome trying to creep in, and feeling trapped on the hamster wheel.

And imposter syndrome can be invidious.

It’s a form of getting in your own way.

I have helped a lot of people to disable it in themselves when they are speaking in public, so that they come across as the right confident version of themselves.

Amongst those who claim to periodically suffer from it – Meryl Streep, Stephen King, Lady Gaga.

It absolutely can be overridden, but when you’re metaphorically spinning round like a top, it can seem hard.

When your brain is on overload, it does very odd things, and triggers the most unhelpful thoughts and states.

And feeling trapped on the hamster wheel is definitely another one of them. Actually, it is part of the symptoms of doing too much that you feel that you CAN’T stop doing too much.

I heard an interview recently with JoJo Moyes, the extremely successful author and film director, where she talked about feeling as though she was doing three full-time jobs at the same time.

Every email that came thorough made her jump and feel she had to answer it – what do they want of me?

She was feeling trapped.

She has re-evaluated her life. As successful as she was, it was over-full, and she had lost sight of the essential. She has slowed her life down since.

Simple, eh?

Actually, when you have got into a way of being and thinking that is so fast you could crash, your brain keeps stoking it – because it thinks that’s what you want.

It can seem very hard. Time to instruct your mind to get through to your brain.

Unplugging the computer and re-setting, so often solves any number of glitches.

So, I’m going to do that to me.

And am going to develop that very helpful quote from Anne, to say:

“Everything works better when you unplug it fully for a while, and re-calibrate when you switch it back on – even me!”

And not simply opening all the programmes back again, carrying on the way that got you over-wired in the first place.

Re-opening, piece by piece.

Taking a look, running it through the essential or not-essential barometer.

I’ll let you know how I get on!

And if you think you are getting in your own way in terms of fearing, disliking or not getting the right results when speaking in public, get in contact. I can help YOU to get out of your way too.

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