This last quarter of school was particularly hard on me, physically. Quite a few times I fell asleep in my 10 am class or showed up at work wobbly and looking like I was going to pass out. I had to analyze my day-to-day life. I was:
- not getting enough sleep
- not getting a restful sleep
- taking my nighttime meds after midnight
These are parts of my life that I had been tolerating because:
- I enjoy burning the candle at both ends
- I am a movie/TVholic, and
- some nights it feels like my CPAP is strangling me (I am also claustrophobic).
I looked up the sleep effects of my psych meds. They can affect me for up to 12 hours! So if I take my meds after midnight and have a 10 am class, no wonder I was falling asleep in class (thank God Art is my personal driver ;-)!
The winter quarter started today (my first class is tomorrow morning), so last week I started dialing everything back. I am taking my meds no later than 10 pm, putting on my CPAP, and turning off the TV by 11. I have already noticed that I am less tired in the morning and more focused.
What are you tolerating?
The thing about tolerating is sometimes we don’t even realize we’re doing it until we start being crushed (or cooked) by whatever we’re tolerating. Take this story:
The Frog in the Cooking Pot
Once upon a time there was a frog. One day, his brother came towards the frog, jumping as fast as he could. “What’s wrong?” the frog asked his brother. “It was so horrible,” the brother responded. “A human grabbed me and threw me in boiling hot water! It’s a good thing I can jump high. I barely escaped with my life!”
“Oh, my goodness,” the frog replied. “I’m so glad you escaped!” The brother made the frog promise he would always stay away from hot water.
A few days later, the frog was hopping along, minding his own business, when a human grabbed him and took him to a big, human house. The human gently washed the frog in warm water, then placed the little guy gently into a pot of cold water. The frog shivered a little, but he wasn’t worried. “My brother said to stay away from hot water, but this water isn’t hot,” he thought.
Minutes passed. The water went from cold to bathtub warm. The frog was quite comfortable. He began doing the backstroke around the pot. “This is amazing,” he thought to himself. “How nice of the human to give me a nice, warm, safe place to swim.”
The water became warmer and warmer. Soon it was, dare I say, hot. The frog stopped paddling around the pot and just laid back and relaxed. “This is exactly what I always dreamt a hot tub would feel like,” he thought. “This is the most generous human I have ever met. If I ever get to come back, I will definitely bring my friends.”
The water gradually warmed more and more. Before the frog knew it, he was a nicely cooked meal of frog’s legs on the human’s plate.
Do you recognize yourself in this frog? Have you been living with and tolerating situations you shouldn’t? Let me help you get out of that pot before you wind up on someone’s plate.
What are YOU tolerating?
