This year was going to be different. I was not going to overcommit. Having taken on a directorship for Australia’s largest natural medicine association, ATMS, I had reduced my teaching commitments to ensure I had enough time for my three roles.

Maybe that’s where I had been kidding myself a little as juggling Head of Nutrition at Nature Care College , clinical practice at Elemental Health   and the directorship was possibly a little challenging.
So what brought me to the verge of adrenal exhaustion?  Well the unexpected. I took over classes for a pregnant colleague and ended up with piles of marking. I stepped up as Treasurer in my board role and found out in when I did that audit and year end had not been organised by my predecessor and my darling son got glandular fever.

Actually the glandular fever was very stressful as a Mum and practitioner. Thank goodness for a great GP who calmly helped us through diagnosis and monitoring his recovery. There is another blog in how to help someone through glandular fever but that will be coming up next!!

What made a big difference was my support team. The friends and colleagues who noticed where I was at and offered great advice even if I took a while to take it on board.
So in the words of Monty Python ” nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” but perhaps what I need to do is learn to allow a little more space for the unexpected. Fortunately for me the college I was working at was going through re-accreditation and decided it needed more hours , thereby giving me space to gracefully bow out. It also allowed me to allocate more time to the directorship and surprisingly (or not) this reduced my stress levels dramatically. Turns out concentrating on only two things was far less stressful.

So what are you planning for 2016? How are you going to make sure you can focus on doing what you love without burning yourself out?

Christine Pope is a practising homeopath, nutritionist and coach , who is still working on coaching herself on stress management! She is in practice at Elemental Health at St Ives and appointments can be made on 8084 0081. Based on her own significant experience she can assist with all the symptoms of adrenal burnout including low energy, poor motivation and low mood.