Work-life balance from the inside out

The alarm clock goes off and you hit snooze because you’re exhausted and you don’t feel like you got any sleep. Your mind’s already whirling with everything you have on your to-do list so, despite the snooze time, you lie in bed beginning to worry. 

You get up and check your emails before you have breakfast and then you fall into autopilot. Any house chores, family needs are seen to, you get to work, skip breaks and you rush through food at your desk and when you get home you have just about enough energy to take care of family needs. When you fall into bed you wonder where the day went and you try to sleep. Despite your exhaustion, you struggle to relax.

Does that sound familiar? This is a fairly common structure for a lot of people. There’s a real struggle with juggling work, family and self-care – and the first thing to get left behind is self-care. 

Imbalance like this can lead to burnout and have a negative impact on your emotional well-being, your relationships and your physical health. 

Hypnotherapy is an effective tool for restoring balance.

Symptoms of work-life imbalance

When you’re caught in the cycle of work-life imbalance, it can be hard to see it because you’re too busy rushing from pillar to post. You might, however, recognise some of these symptoms: 

• stress
• fatigue
• lack of focus
• poor sleep
• irritability
• feeling disconnected
• feeling guilty when resting
• spending less and less time with family and friends
• working in the evenings and weekends
• waking up and dreading the day
• feeling like there’s never enough time
• saying yes when you want to say no

This isn’t something that happens overnight. If it did you’d see it immediately. It creeps in gradually through a general and slow change of habits and a blurring of boundaries which then become normalised. 

Once it’s ‘normal’ it feels impossible to get out of because you have so much that needs doing. Let’s be clear here; it isn’t necessarily about doing less, but about realigning your priorities. 

Why is it so easy to fall out of balance?

You might wonder why, if this is so harmful, we fall into it so easily. There are some compelling reasons (and remember that it creeps up, you don’t consciously decide to do this). 

We get strongly conditioned to value productivity, to keep pushing ourselves in order to achieve success and happiness.

Technology makes it very easy for us to always be available and for work to follow us home (ever answered a couple of emails on your phone whilst lying in bed?). This availability becomes an expectation. 

When you care about your work or others, your own boundaries can get blurred and once that happens, it’s tough to go back. Again, unbalanced expectations get created.

There is a lot of pressure to ‘do it all’ and to ‘have it all’ but doing it all and having it all doesn’t allow for realistic needs like balance. Also, is it necessary to do it all and to have it all in order to be happy and fulfilled? I’ll leave you to answer that one for yourself. Once you have, consider what you, personally, need to be happy and fulfilled.

As you can see from the above, imbalance can come out of you just trying to do and be your best. 

Everything that you have learned, including habits, stressors and beliefs are stored deep in your subconscious mind. This includes your beliefs about commitments, work ethics, productivity and self-worth. This is why you can easily fall into unhealthy or unbalanced habits without consciously meaning to. 

How can hypnotherapy help?

Hypnotherapy works at the subconscious level to:

• Create deep calm and relaxation physically, mentally and emotionally.
• Release limiting beliefs like ‘I must work hard all the time to have worth’.
• Reduce stress and anxiety at a deep level.
• Replace negative thought processes with positive ones.
• Create and reinforce healthy boundaries and self-care habits.
• Promote clarity and confidence in decision-making.

Along with this, working with a hypnotherapist will give you a safe and supported space to explore the root causes of your work-life imbalance and then create strategies designed for your individual needs.

Some of the common themes you might find yourself bringing to hypnotherapy sessions could include:

Perfectionism and over-responsibility

This may also include an inability to let go of control possibly if you’ve started to identify overwork as part of your personality.

Guilt about taking time off

You might be finding that when you try to take some time for yourself, you’re unable to shake the feeling that you really ‘should’ be doing something. 

Difficulty switching off from work

This can overlap with the above point. As you struggle to take time out, you find you’re still thinking about work and unable to relax and enjoy the time you have for yourself.

Trouble sleeping

You may be finding that, no matter how tired you feel, you get into bed and don’t properly rest. You might even feel as though you’ve had no sleep when you have to get up the next morning.

The good news is that all of these and more can be unpacked with a hypnotherapist in order to release unhelpful patterns and create new ones in place to empower you.

Small steps towards balance

Making changes to your work-life balance, even though it’s for your health and benefit, involves important transformation. It can be helpful to start with small steps. Remember that consistency is key and small consistent steps are better than occasional leaps and fallbacks. Here are a couple of ideas that could get you started:

Try breathing techniques

Introduce stress-relieving breathing techniques into your routine, for example, box breathing. Step away from your desk, find somewhere calm to sit and inhale for a count of four. Hold your breath for a count of four and then exhale for a count of four.

Create a 'shut-down' routine

Try a five-minute ‘mental shut down’ ritual. At the end of your working day, write down anything you want to look at, do or think about tomorrow. Keep a small notebook by your bed and if any thoughts start to disturb your rest, write them down to look at tomorrow. 

Remind yourself that rest is key for productivity

Remind yourself that rest will actually make you more productive and by stepping away you can return to your tasks refreshed and with new energy. Freeing up space in your mind by removing the mental clutter can also give you new insights and inspiration.

When you’re caught in the cycle of work-life imbalance, it can seem like an endless loop – but balance is possible and support is available if you need some guidance on your journey to a healthy routine.

Consider hypnotherapy and book a discovery call with a professional to find out how hypnotherapy could help you start realigning from the inside out.