3 AM Thoughts...

Right now, I have a lot of ‘spare’ time. No, I haven't found the secret to a long and prosperous life and living it up on some beautiful Caribbean Island. I'm in the hospital, with a severe kidney infection and a seriously high temperature.

➿I digress...

But, those who know me well, will know how my conversations go off on tangents the nickname 'Laura Long Letter ', isn’t far from the truth, and yes, I’d use 10 words when only 1 would do! (My dad's favourite saying!) But this is me and I don’t fit in a box. I know we may have had similar experiences in life, widowhood, and eating disorders, the list is endless, but we will never have experienced them in the same way, so by default we are different.

🙋♀️Hands up…

In recent weeks, the ease of putting prompts into an AI tool and it spitting out a social media post in seconds rather than hours when done from the creative heart has been all too appealing...but with each press of the ‘regenerate’ button, I felt I was taking a little part of my heart, my passion away, I was becoming increasingly disconnected from myself. Where was the ‘meaning’ if all I had to do was press ‘regenerate’? Was it any wonder I had become ill? 🤔

🛏️As I lie here at 3 am…

My temperature has spiked again to near 40 degrees, grateful that, this, evening I am in a bed on a ward, not a chair in A&E, I’m reflecting on this ‘disconnection’.

💔The Lost Connection…

I'm a storyteller at heart. I share my observations on life and living, the lessons learned, and perspective-taking using stories. A gift I learned from my grandfather a decorated Colonel in the British Army.

🧐Perspective Taking…

While connected to machines over these last 5 days, I’ve been reminded of some great lessons. Perspective taking and where we choose to place our focus, has what has got me through.

#1. As tensions rose in the already packed A&E, and waiting times grew….

Getting stressed about something you have no control over is a fruitless exercise. It is only you who suffer in the end.

#2. In A&E, sat in a chair, opposite the clock, in extreme discomfort, for 14 hours…

Focusing on time, and when would I be seen, a question, I couldn’t possibly answer, would be pointless, so I focused on my breathing and managed the pain making it through 14 hours.

#3. In the corridor, on the ward, waiting for the room to be vacated, for 5 hours…

It was a process I had no control over, but I was on the ward, and I had made progress. Sometimes we can be so caught up in what we haven’t got that we lose sight of the small, yet important steps we have made.

#4. No prescription for intravenous fluids and antibiotics, for 12 hours…

Human error happens... we're all perfectly imperfect.

Don’t focus on the if only's, the what ifs, let them all go, the mistake had been made. Now, the question needs to change to 'What were we going to do about it?'

And finally...

#5. Sat, in the soulless corridor, facing brown soulless doors, for 5 hours…

Focus on how I had nothing to do or keep an open mind and remain curious.

In remaining curious I had adventures in sailing across the Atlantic, the islands of the Caribbean, in recreating one’s life (hers not mine!).

🧡 That soulless corridor and brown soulless doors don’t seem quite so soulless now, do they?

🥱It is now 5 am, I will sign off…

But will leave you with some final thoughts to reflect on…

🤔 How do you feel you would have fared this week? To be honest with you, I know, it is only because of my personal masterplan, #ProjectMe, that I was able to.

❓What situations have made you review or reframe something you're doing? What do you learn? How did it enable you to move forward?

❓When do you wish you had reframed better?

I would love to hear from you, share them below. 👇

🧡

PS thank-you Cayman Rojas , Kwame Christian, Esq., M.A. Apoorva Agrawal , and Chelsea Lockwood for your fabulous LinkedIn Live session earlier this week, and for being the inspiration for this 'Food for Thought' newsletter.

PPS Thank you to all the teams at Pembury Hospital, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust , involved in my care this week, I am grateful and appreciate you all.

#mindset #empowerment #selfleadership