Episode 104 · 10 November 2023 · 4:49

Update 2: I’m on my way back…

Am I back yet? Nearly. I am sleeping again and I am not falling asleep every two hours.

Subject: Steven's Story

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Stillness in the Storms · Episode 104

Am I back yet? Nearly. I am sleeping again and I am not falling asleep every two hours.

A second short update. I am doing much better. The thing about the human condition is that it does not come and go. Thoughts arise, illness arises, the body breaks down and improves and breaks down again. That is not a failure of practice, that is just being a person. The balance between what was going on outside and what was going on inside was not there for me, and when that goes, I end up letting myself down and letting other people down too. Back recording properly next week.

One thing to try: When you are rebuilding, do not rush back and pile the pressure straight back on.

In this episode

  • (0:43) Sleeping again, and not falling asleep every two hours
  • (1:18) The human condition does not come and go
  • (1:56) The emails and messages that kept me going
  • (2:37) The prize is the balance inside
  • (3:18) It was quite bad for a while
  • (3:57) What I have been putting on YouTube instead

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Thank you for listening.

Steven

The story behind this one

A short update, under five minutes, because I had done one a few weeks earlier and then gone quiet again.

I am doing much better. Sleeping again, and not falling asleep every two hours. Back to meditating a couple of times a day, which I had somehow stopped doing at exactly the point I most needed it, because I had decided I could not.

Before that I had a bad stretch. Almost a week barely eating, and my body catching everything going. Infections were watching me go past and thinking, we will have him, he looks weak.

I know my pattern now. Over promise, take too much on, get overwhelmed, and then my body says no, I am done, and takes the decision off me.

What it taught me

I am deliberately not rushing back and piling the pressure on. Life supplies enough on its own, and sometimes you are not ready for it yet.

There are no prizes for being the strongest victim in the yard.

I have the tools for the dark stretches and I can plough through on willpower, and ploughing through is not the win. The win is the balance between what is going on outside and what is going on inside, and mine was not there.

And when that balance goes, I end up letting myself down and letting other people down with it.

The human condition does not come and go. Thoughts arise, illness arises, the body breaks down and improves and breaks down again.

That is not a failure of practice. That is being a person, and being paralysed makes it a little harder at times.

So I have been having some fun instead. A couple of small videos with no pressure attached, a couple of meditations, and I sold a few things and bought some camera glasses to play with.

Questions people ask

Why is this one so short?

Because it is an update rather than an episode. I would rather say I am still here in four minutes than disappear for another month.

Should I push through when I feel like this?

That is exactly what I did and it is what put me in bed for a week. There is nothing gained by proving you can carry it.

What actually helped?

Going back to the ordinary things. Sleeping. Eating. Sitting for a few minutes twice a day. Nothing clever, which is usually the way of it.

Read along

The transcript

It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.

In this episode

update · personal-story · healing

Read the transcript

Hello. And how are you doing? I just wanted to give you another quick update because I did an update

a few weeks ago and I realised that I haven't done anything since.

And first of all, I'm doing so much better.

I'm not quite ready to come back and pile everything back on and put all the pressure on yet. I

know life gives us pressure anyway, but sometimes we're not ready for that pressure. And I realised

from the past my pattern of being overwhelmed over promising and doing too much, and then my body just says,

no, I'm done with that and gives up on me. And the last couple of weeks, I've been really quite

poorly. And this past few days, I'm so much better, feel better, I've got energy. I'm not falling asleep

every two hours. I'm sleeping again at night. I'm back to meditating a couple of times a day, which for

some reason I really stopped doing because I was getting overwhelmed. I was thinking that I couldn't do it. So

I got back to taking a step back, practicing what I invite you to do, and really just

nailing down on those things that really do help us. Because this human condition doesn't come and go. We're human.

Thoughts come, thoughts arise and illness arises. The body breaks down, the body

improves and then breaks down and overwhelm happens. Life happens, and it's how we deal with these things on a

daily basis. And being paralysed does make it a little more difficult at times. So I just want to say

thank you to anybody's bought me a coffee, left a review that still listens to my inner peace meditations on

the other podcast or on this one. Listen to my podcast and the messages I get. You guys are absolutely

amazing. Thank you to you. I've had some wonderful emails and wonderful messages. You keep me going

in so many ways and. But I'm deliberately not rushing back and

piling on all that pressure onto me.

Yes, I have the tools to deal with the most darkest times, but, you know, I can deal with the

stuff in my head I can plow through, but there's no prizes for that. There's no prizes for being the

strongest victim in the yard, if you know what I mean. The prize is for just ourselves

inside, when we find that balance between what's going on outside and what's going on inside. And the balance wasn't

there for me. And in return, I was letting myself down and letting other people down and piling on the

pressure. But I ended up quite poorly to the point where I Spent almost a

week barely eating and just really poorly and my body was catching every infection that I could imagine.

You know, infections were watching me go by and go, oh, we can have him, he's looking weak at the

moment. It was, it was quite bad for a time. But anyway, I'm here, I'm doing

well and next week I'll be back recording. I've done a couple of little videos on my Youtube

with no pressure, a couple of meditations and I've just, I sold a couple of items I had

and I've just bought some meta glasses

and I'm gonna go live and do some videos with them and it's gonna be quite interesting. So I've just

done a video about me unboxing them over on my Youtube channel if you want to sneak preview of that.

I don't know if you want to do it or not. Slightly different. I just share stuff on my Youtube

channel that

just makes my life a little bit easier. Things that. Whether it's inanimate objects or

um different things. But

yeah, I'm just, I'm just having a little fun at the moment. Just no pressure on myself and I was

putting the pressure on too much and therefore I'm not helpful to anybody at that point. So look, thank you

to. If you're still listening to this podcast three or four minutes in, you must be one of my diehard

friends because just

deeply grateful to you and I love you and take care and I will see you next

week.

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