The Burnout Queens Wisdom: When life throws a Burnout Queen lemons, she will never make lemonade…she will go for tea and cake instead!
Hello from Lewes & London! 3 June 2017
It’s June and that means we have been settling into our new town for a month. We strongly believe that as life evolves it can take us to places we had never thought of before. That is definitely how we ended up coming to Lewes. We made a valiant attempt to consider other places but they just never felt right. We kept saying, “If we were moving to Lewes it would be a slam-dunk decision!” We finally listened and here we are.
This little town, nestled in the South Downs National Park, offers so many things. We are still on a direct train into London (think shopping and art!) and we have history, oh do we have history. Look out our kitchen window and you will see the Castle (yes, a bona fide castle circa 1069 AD). At night it is lit up and it is stunning. We could never get blasé about that view.
In between unpacking and decorating, and work of course, we have been exploring this little gem of a town. There are some delightful surprises like this round house (once owned by Virginia Woolf) with the most adorable garden (I admit I want to live here). The town is small, most things are within a 15 minute walk. When you live close to everything it’s easy to ‘pack it’ home by foot! Alright, go ahead and laugh at our new form of furniture delivery!
You know us, we are always on the lookout for a good tea room and interesting boutique and it’s not hard to find both.
We have made ourselves a promise to discover tiny new streets and lanes that will take us who knows where! Behind every gate and door there is always a little bit more history and beauty to delight.
So we’re off to explore and fall more in love with our charming new town each time we uncover something new.
Until next month, stay curious and keep discovering!
Love,
Fret it, Fight It, or… | Turn Stress On Its Head
Seriously, this last couple of months I wanted, no needed, two of me, or perhaps three if you include the one who just wants to ‘do tea’ and doddle in the garden, but I’d settle for two. Well there I was, mid yoga stretch (relax, breathe into the pose, let it go…) when it hit me, I could fret it or fight it but ultimately what I really needed to do is turn stress on its head.
Relax and breathe into that daily stretch called life.
(tweet this)
Most of us want to make our lives more flexible, relaxed, and harmonious but it can feel impossibly hard to do that with all the daily pressures, challenges, demands, not to mention the constant ‘time squeeze’ we all feel. Truth be said we cause lots of our daily stress by going too fast, cramming too much in, jumping when everybody else clicks their fingers, and stretching in too many directions, way too many directions. Lots of times, however, life just gets in the way of life! Hello stress, like right now when I’m trying to finish this article for you all and the property management firm has arrived to check on our move in. Ah Life you got to love it!
Now in the past my reaction to the pressure would have been to get all tensed up, annoyed, worried, and pressured. I would respond by furiously attempting to get more focused, work faster, add another task to my list (go figure that one!), in short dig in and push harder. Hey, that’s what made me the perfect Burnout Queen! Naturally none of this proved remarkably effective, instead it simply added to my sense of overwhelm.
Imagine replacing resistance with harmony and peace.
(tweet this)
I love the idea of breathing into life; deeply inhaling all life has to offer (yes stress and all, that is why it’s called life) then letting it all go on the exhale. Imagine (seriously sweetie, close your eyes and imagine) not feeling the tension or the resistance, not feeling the pressure, not feeling squeezed. Could it be that you could actually stretch further, be more flexible, experience more flow in your life and at the same time gain in strength and resilience? Now that’s turning stress on it’s head and that’s exactly what comes when you accept that life can be simpler…more breathable so to speak.
So go ahead, next time you are feeling all scrunched up with stress take that full breath in, breathe out and let your body, mind and soul fill and flow and let it go. Bye bye burnout because you defy ordinary.
You know how to be cool with life.
Being your best is a glorious gift only you can give yourself
The Burnout Queens Wisdom: Being your best is a glorious gift only you can give yourself
Hello from Brighton & London | 13 May 2017
It’s May, it’s May…the merry month of May! The Burnout Queens and Pups have completed the move to the town of Lewes. We have been overwhelmed with boxes and ‘things’ to unwrap in our new digs but it has been a happy two weeks, not least because we have had help from our niece who came from Canada to help us settle in, bless her heart!
After spending many diligent days up to our elbows in bubble wrap we deserved a reward so we planned a day of magic (it was Dr T’s birthday after all)! Dr T recently discovered that her great (niece’s great, great) grandmother was born and raised a mere 15 minutes by train from our new town.
Dr T and I believe the sense of connection, whether current or legacy, is a vital part of how we know ourselves. As therapists we often helped clients embrace their past in order to move forward in life. Well, on this day we were creating a new adventure taking us into our past in a wildly exciting way.
Got our map, boarded the train, stopped for lunch to sustain us on our hike (yes you read that right…the Burnout Queens were going hiking) then began our trek to the Cuckmere Haven Coastguard Cottages. Walking the foot path along the estuary through farm fields we were all in awe of the silence, beauty, and peace that surrounded us.
We were walking into history. During World War II Canadian troops were attacked by air and killed by German planes in these fields. In the mid-1800’s the coastguard station was a lifelines to many boats that ran ashore, not to mention the smugglers!
We knew the cottages were perched on cliffs overlooking the English Channel and Seven Sister (white chalk cliffs), but nothing prepared us for this magnitude of beauty. It is awe inspiring, breath-taking and historic. As we walked we could ‘feel’ where Great (and great, great) Grandmother had walked, played and lived until the age of seven while Great Great Grandfather served with the coastguard here for many years. A harsh, rugged life at the tip of land that was and still is beyond beautiful.
The feeling of connecting to someone and some place in your past can be so spiritual and uplifting. This truly was a day we will all remember (plans afoot to bring more family to see it). We all hoped that the actual ancestoral cottage was this one, but we weren’t sure.
For Dr B it was really heart-warming to witness the sense of belonging both Dr T and her niece felt. It was infectious. Our past is sometimes the very place we need to visit in order to embrace who we are. Magic.
Next month, we’ll share more of the new Town we now call home. It’s stunning.
Love,
