Ummmm, yeah, just a normal day. Nothing special. Well, just a little special but boring all the same. Some mental burnout session along the way.
Woke up at around 5 in the morning. Yayyyy!! 🥳. Slept again,🥲and then woke up at 12 or 1 maybe. So, you can imagine I was not in an excellent mood. Did some work. Not a lot. Got stuck in some work, got a little overwhelmed. My mind was suddenly bombarded with a lot of ideas and plans and goals, and things that I need to complete in near future. Couldn’t work then. So, I took a break for my mental health. I think it is useless to push through when your mind is stuck.
First of all, you wouldn’t be able to do any work and even if you do, I don’t think it would be high quality or even passable quality work. You might need to redo it later on. Plus, it will totally burn you out. So, I think we have got to look out for signs of burnout and practice self-compassion for productivity.
So, I took a break and had my dinner. It made me feel a little better. Some time away from the problem, not thinking about it, gets you back in a relaxed state. Eating helps, but I think we have to be mindful otherwise it would be stress eating. So, eating whatever you planned to prepare for dinner, normal food, not junk food. And if you can get some company, family or friends, that is even better. Then you can restart. That’s what happened. I started to work again. However, it is no magic. So, it’s not like 100% of the times you take a break and get back to work you will be able to just blaze through your work. The efficiency decreases. So, I was able to do some work and then I made peace with it. That was enough for the day.
So, the thing about mornings is, I like to wake up early for a reason. A good morning routine helps in improving our mental health, I think. Though I am not sure whether I am an early bird 🐦 or a night owl 🦉. This has been a great debate, early bird vs night owl, hasn’t it? I have, throughout my life stayed up late at nights to study and work. But I have suffered a lot because of that. Sleepless nights, terrible mornings. Dark circles (which are only kept hidden by my glasses), dozing of in classes, dozing off even when I am told to stand at the back of the class, and feeling groggy throughout the day just to wake up at night all over again. I am not really a fan of it. That is why I try to wake up early now, but up to no avail, obviously.
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep."
Another reason is, a couple of times I woke up early, I have done somewhat good. I wake up, exercise out in the park while the sun is still not up (amazing atmosphere), take shower early, make my own breakfast, watch some show while eating, get to work and end up doing good amount of work while the clock’s still not hit 12 in the morning. Of course, all downhill after that because I get extremely tired. But I will work on that. Does waking up early really improve our mental health? Hmmm, well I’ll tell you when I find it for myself. Oh, did I tell you about my breakfast. I love doing my breakfast. It is my favorite meal of the day. And I like making sort of an English breakfast, fried egg, fried tomatoes, sausages and beans (if I have any). I’ll definitely show you guys my breakfast one of these days.
So, I was wondering. Well first I will give you people some context. Let me take you on a trip down the memory lane and explain why nostalgia hit me today. I planned to meet an old friend today. I spent a lot of my childhood with him and his brother. We were neighbors. I think it is good that I tried reconnecting with old an old friend. I like to do that once in a while. We used to have so much fun. It was nice time. We would wake up till late at night playing games. GTA, WWE, Midnight club, uncharted, tekken, fifa, monopoly, age of empires, stronghold crusader, you name it. We used to have so many discussions on so many topics. We used to fight as well. Had dinner and lunches and snacks at each other’s place. It was a lot of fun.
We had a nice meet up. Went to a coffee shop. That weird feeling of who is going to pay for the expensive Frappuccino or shakes, man that is always tricky. But nevertheless, we had a nice time. Talked about old stuff. Reminisced a lot. I guess we talked for around hour and a half or two maybe.
Back to my wondering. I was wondering, when one meets someone, who is not like a regular friend, someone you are going to meet after some while, someone you are going to have a casual kind of a formal talk, about life, what both are up to these days, current situations, families, stuff like that, how are you supposed to behave? How important is authenticity? I mean of course there is a great level of vulnerability in friendships, and I am all up for that. But when it comes to such meetings like I had, what then?
Should you be like this cool guy who knows his stuff and gives off a successful, strong, main character vibe, you know like, ummm, I don’t know, maybe like James bond, I guess. Like a confident guy and try to create a good impression. Or can you be goofy, fun and vulnerable guy or like a supporting character like maybe Ron Weasly, or flash (in justice league) or maybe Spiderman (Tom Holland) or someone like that. You get it right? I was thinking like that because I am obviously not at the top of my game, my life is not sorted, at all, and I don’t really put myself out very confidently. So I was thinking, do we need to act like MEN all the time?
How do you girls handle this? Do you also have to act like WOMEN all the time, like emotionally, mentally mature, strong-willed women. Or can you act like just simple girls most of the time? Do you feel the need to prove anything to others when you meet them, or create an impression or do you act casually and nonchalantly?
So, is it okay to be vulnerable with friends? I think if they are really your friends, not another one of your normal friend from one of those dozen friend groups, who you meet formally, then being vulnerable is fine, even good up to some extent I would say. But these days, meaning of friends is all distorted. We call anyone our friend. Maybe on that some other day.
Ah well, thought a lot today. And the day was also not that very good. How do you stay hopeful during tough times? I guess going to sleep hoping tomorrow would be a better one will do the trick. Let’s just begin by hoping I wake up early.
“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most."
Tell me, are you an Early Bird 🐦 or Night Owl 🦉? Or have you not figured that out yet just like me?
Are you able to figure out when you are totally burnout? What do you do when that happens? Do you take a break or do you push through?
Tell me, do you have a lot of friends or not a lot? How do you act around them? Are you reserved or are you able to open up in front of them?
