Article three: Grandma was right when she told us that too much of a good thing can actually be a bad thing.
“Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?” — Shakespeare.
The first time I walked into my therapists office I noticed a graph hanging on the wall. It was termed, The Inverted U-Model.
Although, most concepts take me a while to fully grasps, this one I understood right away. However, the issue was that I didn’t implement it for a while, far from it actually.
Furthering, on the essence of the graph, Chef Dan posits his opinion on the relationship between, stress levels and performance, happiness, and health.
Once again, Chef Dan, heeds to Klass, his head farmer, to explain some of their shared thoughts,
“Among the hardest lessons to learn in farming is that too much of a good thing isn’t good. Because farmers see how fertilization brings growth, they’re often motivated to over fertilize as insurance. The effect can be destructive.”
Of course, once again, I see parallels between farming practices, and human health. This time I’ll relay a personal story to articulate the message.
In my early twenties, I became obsessed with all things fitness and hard work. The euphoria of a good workout, the partnership and shared sweat in the gym and group classes, and the overcoming of fear to get out of your comfort zone while pushing yourself to your limit. However, although these traits were great and well-received at first, it didn’t last, well because, it couldn’t.
It couldn’t last because your body needs rest and balance, things I didn’t except. Although it felt as if I was growing as person, both physically and mentally, things began to change once I added a new major stressor, that appeared to be only good at the time.
Four years ago, I helped open up a gym in Montreal, and I worked my tail off. However, even with the exhausting hours, and the necessity and willingness to always be on for clients, to much of a good thing, became a bad thing. In other words, to much hard work, doing what I loved at the time, and training, became to much stress on my system. Therefore, adhering to the warning of the graph, I burnt out physically and mentally.
I became no different than the farmer tossing more and more fertilizer onto the plant in order for it to grow. Eventually, not only did I stop growing, but I started to reject it, and regress. Ironically, the only way that I’d be able to recover from this is to shun the things that once made me unconditionally happy, such as, teaching people, moving and working.
That’s the irony of too much of a good thing, being a bad thing. That being said, I’m starting fertilize again (that sounds so sexual), and little bit by little bit, I’ll get back to doing what truly makes me happy, just needed a slight break ;)
