Dr Ashley Ng

Recently I went through a bit of a down time where I felt very unmotivated, disillusioned and felt lost. I was also quite stressed as I had set myself a few tight deadlines with my PhD. I felt like I was losing sight of things that mattered and the reasons to why I got involved with so many things.

Doing long hours at the office meant little time and energy for exercise. I stopped going to the gym. I felt sluggish, my BGLs became erratic and I felt guilty for not exercising. It became clear that I needed to make exercise a priority.

Easier said than done!

I had to give myself a pep talk, which included reminders of the benefits of exercise and how it would only take an hour of my day. I also had to ignore the little devil on my shoulder trying to talk me out of exercise using every excuse under the sun. The best choice then was to get my exercise over and done with in the mornings, before I would have had the chance to talk myself out of it.

For the moment it is working well. My BGLs are looking good, I generally feel a bit happier and that I can cope better despite the stress around me. Things are happening and progressing instead of simply despairing. It’s still challenging and really hard work to be on top of everything. But I’m very proud of getting over this little bump.

My next challenge is being able to have flexibility while juggling everything. Often, I get flustered or angry at myself when something comes along that disrupts my routine or my plans. Which is where the reminder of the need to ‘be kind to myself’ comes in.

One thing is for sure though that I will be taking any opportunity I can get for a holiday of some sort!