As I've mentioned in a couple of posts, last week I was off work, as I needed to use up some annual leave before the year end. To be honest, I was in desperate need of some time off after working over Christmas and New Year. The build up to Christmas in any retail environment is very intense and unrelenting and I think I was virtually burnt out by the time I did go on leave.
I don't think I realised how burnt out I was, until I got away. It took a couple of days to acclimatise to being off work, and I didn't do a great deal during this time. As the week wore on, I decided to use the opportunity to get the house up to scratch. It has been very neglected in the last few months. All of my energies have gone into work and there's been very little left over for the house. Getting it clean again and back in some sort of order has made me feel a lot better and more in control of things.
We were going to go away for a few days toward the end of last week, but as I got stuck into the cleaning, it didn't seem so important. I may regret this, as it would have been good for blowing away the cobwebs, but I should be taking another week off in the next few weeks, so perhaps we can get away then. For now, getting back on top of things at home seemed more of a priority, as the state of the house has been weighing me down both mentally and physically lately. Only by tackling it did this weight lift.
I returned to work on Tuesday this week. I can't say that I was looking forward to going back, the main reason being, that I don't seem to be able to find a good balance lately, between doing enough and doing too much. I push myself to work relentlessly hard when I'm there and it leaves me feeling very depleted.
After spending some time thinking about my situation at work, I went back feeling a bit more detached than usual and ready to stand back a little and not overdo it. I want to try to stop pushing myself so hard to do everything that needs doing, to the detriment of my health and wellbeing.
Anyway, when I got back, there was a massive stack of Gift Aid donations to sort. I tackled what I could that day, but I didn't push myself quite so hard and I spent some time tidying the stockroom, as I hate to work in a messy space. I didn't get everything done, but I felt okay about it. There were a few new faces which was good, and an ex volunteer popped in to say hello too. I worked with one new volunteer who was lovely.
What I particularly enjoyed about going back, however, was getting back on my bike. I've missed the extra exercise I get by cycling to work. Although I did a lot of cleaning last week, which is physical work, I have been much more sedentary and I needed to get myself moving again. It is also a good stress buster, which is an added bonus.
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