This past week has been quite challenging for various reasons and as a result my physical and mental health took a hit. My experience this week also made me ask an important question, do we check our internal thermostat?
So what is a thermostat? By definition a thermostat is something that regulates temperature. Now typically you can set a thermostat and forget it, but as circumstances change it may need to be adjusted. Personally, I hadn’t check or adjusted mine in quite sometime.
I am a person that will constantly move, my to do list is never ending (because I am always adding more), goal setting is a necessity, and I will always push myself to do more. Now to anybody reading this, those sound like excellent traits to have. Right? Well for myself if I don’t check my “Becky” thermostat it can quickly turn into unhealthy habits for me.
The first thing for me that is affected is my mental health, I am a analytical thinker. I have a very difficult time turning my brain off, for me I have to make a conscious effort to do so. My analytical thinking can quickly turn into anxiety. When I get in this particular space I function on minimal sleep 3-4 hours a night and it can go on for weeks. Now believe it or not it takes much longer for me to feel anything physically, but this week it caught up to me. Last week I developed debilitating muscle spasms, it has never happened before. The spasms were so bad, I had to cancel my gym workouts and rethink most of my previous commitments. Essentially, I had to sit my ASS down.
I also had to ask myself why is this happening? Physically I was feeling great, but I was struggling with my mental health. Now let me be clear mental health is a continuum and having difficulty with it does not make you crazy it makes you HUMAN. I hadn’t checked my “Becky” thermostat, and as a result my lack of sleep, anxiety, and analytical brain it manifested for me as muscle spasms.
So, this past week I focused on meditation, allowing myself grace, and improving my sleep hygiene. I am happy to say my spasms are gone and I am back at it. Life is balance, a constant state of imbalance can lead to physical and mental breakdown. I shared all of that to say this, keep a check on your internal thermostat — only you know the setting and how much it needs be adjusted.
Until next time……make sure you are ALWAYS LEARNING 📚
212 Wellness 