You may feel a little tired or you could be recovering from a recent illness. You may be trying to manage too many things at once and feel a bit torn between tasks or expectations. You aren't quite firing on all cylinders and it can be a bit annoying, concerning, confusing or perplexing when it happens.
Generally, the tilted feeling doesn't last all that long - just a couple of days. Just long enough for us to notice that we aren't feeling like our usual selves and hopefully set about rectifying the imbalance. The tilted feeling, when I get it, is a gentle nudge from my body to say that something needs my attention. It's a gentle nudge at first and if I ignore it, it becomes something much harder to ignore. It stops being a list and starts to become a problem.
I don't know who coined the phrase - listen to your body when it whispers so that you don't have to hear it scream, but they were certainly on to something. This whisper that they speak of is the tilted feeling that I am speaking of; a gentle listing just to remind me that I have gone off course and am heading in a bad, troubling, unproductive or dangerous direction.
Often I experience 'tilting' when I have failed to replenish my own needs and my personal battery is beginning to run low. I feel tilted in the early days leading up to an illness, when I have done too much in too little time or I have given myself too many social interludes without any time to diffuse in between. Being an introvert, this can happen to me very easily.
My listing feeling may start like a headache or a bit of brain fog. It can be a tired feeling where I will just desperately feel like I need to be alone or withdraw. It can be an ache in my shoulders or my legs or my back that doesn't stop me from doing things but is as annoying as hell. It can present as little melancholy and low in energy and I can seem aloof, bored, disinterested or short. It's not black, it's blue; it's not dark it's slow moving and dull, like a tone running in the background. It can be ignored, but it never should be because as I said, it's whispering not yelling yet.
Over the years I have become an expert at knowing what to do when I start to 'list' and I am very good at catching myself before I go full tilt overboard these days. Check out my top tips:
TIRED?
- Go to bed early for at least 3 days straight - duh!
- Clear the weekend, and stay home from Friday evening to Monday morning - full reboot.
- Turn off the TV early and go read a book in bed.
- Nap - get into the habit of napping when you can, it's awesome to nap.
- Skip the gym/ workout for a day or two, you'll be fine!
- Meditate, it's super rejuvenating.
- Wear peppermint essential oil.
- Drink less coffee and eat more apples - it does work!
- Book a massage asap.
- Take a couple of Panadol/ Ibuprofen.
- Have a long soak in the tub.
- Lie down and put your feet up.
- Splash lavender and bergamot in your diffuser to soothe anxiety and stress.
- Cut out the alcohol and clean eat for a few days to reset your system.
- Make a doctors appointment if this a repeated/ persistent pain.
- Order in for a couple of days, you're too tired to cook.
- Say no to people until you can manage more.
- Farm the kids out for a night of peace and quiet.
- Listen to an audio book when you are in the car to unwind and change your thought patterns after work.
- Do what needs to be done only, fuck the rest it can wait.
- Delegate, are you sure this is all yours to do? Are there other people who could take a bit of the load for you?
- Reprioritise, what is more important? Your health and wellbeing are always the most important thing, so listen to your body!
I seriously suggest that you do listen to your body when it is trying to speak to you, and trust me when I say that your body is communicating with you at all times - because it is! Those little twinges, they don't stay little if you ignore them. Those aches gets tougher, the tiredness gets bigger and the feelings get stronger, so do not pretend that you can't hear those early warning signs that you are getting from your body - act swiftly and get on with your life!
Release Date: 1999
Rating: R 18+
Running Time: 121 mins
An American psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader and based on the novel of the same name by Joe Connelly. Bringing Out The Dead is easily the most original and unique film of 1999 and with a stellar ensemble cast, there's a lot to like here.
An exhausted Manhattan paramedic (Nicholas Cage) fights to retain his sanity under the strain of his demanding and stressful job. A double graveyard shift tests his fortitude further as things for him, and his three co-workers, continue to escalate.
Nicholas Cage is really 'bringing out his dead' here, delivering a believably strung out and exhausted paramedic as he convincingly meanders around the edges of a complete meltdown. He is incredibly well supported by Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore and Patricia Arquette, and although it isn't pretty, Bringing Out The Dead is genuinely interesting and thought provoking material.
FINAL SAY: Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world.
3.5 Chilli Peppers