{"id":4926,"date":"2020-09-23T08:15:09","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T08:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:38:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T12:38:27","slug":"avoiding-burnout-by-finding-your-thing-for-alumni-by-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2020\/09\/23\/avoiding-burnout-by-finding-your-thing-for-alumni-by-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding burnout by finding your \u2018thing\u2019 \u2013 For Alumni, by Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Gemma\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Clatworthy<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(<\/em><\/strong>BA 2007<\/em><\/strong>)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>discovered a passion for storytelling during her Ancient History studies at Cardiff University, but it wasn\u2019t until a global pandemic and a country-wide lockdown that she learned about the stress-relieving power of focusing on something you love.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Here, she shares her struggles with balancing a career, childcare and the unrealistic desire to be perfect, and how she narrowly avoided burnout by channelling her feelings into a creative pastime.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Lockdown has been a stressful time for many people. There were, and still are, many challenges and uncertainties, something which, as a\u00a0senior\u00a0risk\u00a0professional,\u00a0I know about.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What I didn\u2019t realise at first was how difficult it was going to be to try to juggle childcare, home-schooling and a full-time job. Inevitably this led to long hours, many frustrations and feeling like I wasn\u2019t doing anything particularly well. I also put a lot of pressure on us as a family to get stuff done.\u00a0This was the time to tackle\u00a0all of the little jobs around the house.\u00a0We did a lot,\u00a0but of course we weren\u2019t getting a break and were all starting to feel the pressure of always\u00a0being\u00a0\u2018on\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As time went on, my patience started to wane until it became non-existent. I lost my temper more frequently over stupid little things, mostly with my family. I was constantly tired but not sleeping well, which made me feel worse\u00a0and then I would snap more.\u00a0I would then feel like I was failing at being a mother and every time I couldn\u2019t make a\u00a0meeting,\u00a0I would feel I was failing at work. I was losing perspective and feeling overwhelmed.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Looking back now, I can see that I was on the verge of burnout.\u00a0I was drowning in expectations at work and at home, not helped by the perfect images people put on social media. We did have a routine at home but every time I saw an image of a family out for a lovely walk at the beach, I felt guilty, even though we live several hours from the coastline!\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I needed\u00a0a break and\u00a0an outlet away from work and family. Something just for me to help keep me sane.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve always enjoyed writing and storytelling. I think that\u2019s why I chose to study Ancient History at\u00a0Cardiff,\u00a0I was fascinated by ancient\u00a0myths and legends. I can remember that I once\u00a0added\u00a0a fictional walkthrough of a\u00a0Celtic\u00a0village to one of my essays as an appendix, just because I wanted to. Luckily my tutor didn\u2019t deduct any marks for that, although he didn\u2019t add any either!\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I went back to writing\u00a0during lockdown\u00a0and always felt better after\u00a0jotting\u00a0something down. One day, after shouting at my darling children for the umpteenth time, and still being ignored, I thought I should write\u00a0something down\u00a0to get it out of my system. So\u00a0\u2018The\u00a0Girl\u00a0Who\u00a0Lost\u00a0Her\u00a0Listening\u00a0Ears\u2019\u00a0was born, a\u00a0humorous\u00a0take on what was driving me crazy at home.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u00a0showed my story\u00a0to some trusted friends who liked\u00a0it,\u00a0and one suggested I have a look at publishing it. I had an idea in my mind about a picture book.\u00a0But I\u2019m not the best artist and had no idea how to look for an illustrator for a book that might never see the light of day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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One hobby I do have is crafting and I\u2019ve enjoyed applique embroidery since I found it about\u00a0two\u00a0years ago. Creating pictures from pieces of fabric is super fun and I find it very tactile and soothing. This was the perfect opportunity to combine my love of writing with my love of crafting.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I spent about\u00a0three\u00a0months using any spare time I had\u00a0writing, rewriting, creating the artwork and getting feedback on my book before\u00a0self-publishing\u00a0it via Amazon.\u00a0It was hard\u00a0work\u00a0but it was worth all the hours I put in. It gave me purpose and something to focus on that wasn\u2019t trawling the internet for the latest coronavirus figures. It has also given me a creative outlet that I hope to continue with.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019m still learning about publishing and being an author\u00a0and I\u2019m now confident that writing and crafting are my \u201cthings\u201d.\u00a0So, what\u2019s yours?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tell us what your thing is by Tweeting\u00a0us @cardiffalumni with the hashtag #MyThingIs\u202f \u202f<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You can find Gemma at her\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>website<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Instagram<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and her book,\u00a0The Girl Who Lost Her Listening Ears,\u00a0is currently available on\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>amazon<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>

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Tell us what matters to\u00a0you\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We\u2019ve\u00a0introduced \u2018For Alumni, By Alumni\u2019, because who knows our alumni community better than…you guessed it, you!\u00a0We’d\u00a0love to hear from you<\/a>\u00a0with ideas for articles or online events that you’re interested in, you can give insight on, or maybe you ARE the story! Check out our\u00a0full line-up of\u00a0articles<\/a>\u00a0and watch back our\u00a0live events playlist<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gemma Clatworthy (BA 2007) discovered a passion for storytelling during her Ancient History studies at Cardiff University, but it wasn\u2019t until a global pandemic and a country-wide lockdown that she learned about the stress-relieving power of focusing on something you love. Here, she shares her struggles with balancing a career, childcare and the unrealistic desire to be perfect, and how she narrowly avoided burnout by channelling her feelings into a creative pastime. ","protected":false},"author":904,"featured_media":4928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,201,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff-connect","category-for-alumni-by-alumni","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4926"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10037,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions\/10037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}