Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Getting back into the swing of things

After one week back at work, there are changes I've noticed already.

Week two sees more staff return from leave and the busier the office gets the less casual the staff attitudes and appearance. Gone are the floral thongs and the flowing skirts and back to the sandals and fitted skirts. Soon the sandals will swap for closed toe flats and the jackets will start to make an appearance. There is a direct correlation between looking professional and working professionally. As the attire changes so does the attitude or maybe as the attitude changes so does the clothing. Perhaps its competition that drives us. Perhaps there is less supervision, self-motivation, and discipline fall to the wayside. Perhaps when others are on leave you picture them taking it easy and you do likewise. *shrugs*

It would be interesting to see how much bandwidth is used by the staff that work over the Christmas / New Year break. Facebook, web forums, personal email, job vacancy sites, streaming music and or video, eBay and maybe even posting on Blogger are all temptations. Access seems so much easier when there is no one to look over your shoulder.

I am getting sleepy and wanting to do all those things now that I have typed that so I took a break to adjust my chair. Thinking positively, this is a perfect time of year to take stock and review what you have achieved and what is still outstanding. It is good to do that on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis but the big one is when a new year starts. All those tasks like fixing up the filing, streamlining office processes and such. Looking forward you can start thinking about budgets, goals and targets you would like to reach and looking historically at your work / life balance and thinking about ways to even out the balance. Write notes on what you are pondering and discover ways you can work smarter and not harder.

Speaking of balance Pilates started back for the year too and I went in with a headache and some lower back pain. The instructors tailored my session to suit and helped me stretch out the surrounding muscle groups to ease my tension. I felt much better after the 75-minute session. Simply breathing properly and using your core to exhale and you are feeling the benefit already. My posture seated, standing and laying down are all very much improved. I have a long way to go and am in pain daily but I can make a difference and lessen the pain by implementing some very simple changes.

Some of these are:
  • Breathe into the back of your rib cage
  • Expel air by tucking your tummy in
  • Relaxing your shoulders
  • Relaxing your limbs
  • Tucking your chin in
  • Keeping your hips and shoulders square
  • Tucking your pelvis forward
  • Walking heel toe heel toe etc
  • After 45 minutes of a repetitive task stretch your limbs and
  • Adjust your eye focus
  • Close your eyes from time to time and relax your face
  • Stretch your facial muscles by pulling faces

For my particular injuries I need to do many chin tucks every day and back bends every day to stretch out the areas that constantly spasm and when I think I've done enough, do some more. I used to let the Physiotherapist or Chiropractor do all the work but I always knew deep down that unless I was going to put effort into rehabilitation my back would continue to deteriorate.

My goal is to dance again as my passion is never quite fulfilled by watching.

In the meantime I'll remember ... it'll be alright on the night

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