It is not easy for me to disclose the actual things behind my retirement from writing Malay Creative Writing/Literature works. Somehow I feel moved to share some of the important lessons in two separate posts. In the first post, I’ll share about an interesting findings after reading several Traditional Chinese Medicine articles written by the practitioners. It is about Hot Palm – a health warning sign that became more and more obvious during my active involvement in Malay Creative Writing/Literature. Due to the lack of knowledge and awareness, I became ignorant and so, it leads to the deteriorations of my health conditions in 2012. As a result, my productivity depleted dramatically and many more, and so I quit officially in 2014. Hopefully these two posts can help my fellow writers to realize the importance of self-care, and so, surviving from the grip of writer’s block and burnout.
I’m gravitated towards Traditional Chinese Medicine and other alternative way of self-care, since realizing that I have obvious over-reactive reactions to many modern medical drugs and chemicals. Reading writings from any Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners are an eye-opening experiences, especially so when I read about any topics that related to my health issues.
Hot palms ( with sweats ) occasionally happening on myself for more than several years since I was a teenager. And those episodes were happened when I experienced the lowest of the lows. For a sudden, I got a very logical explanation of super-enormous burnout episode around 2012-2014 that lead me to my early retirement from Malay Creative Writing/Literature world. Before that, I thought that my decision are entirely driven by negative feelings and emotions. But now, by joining the dots from my self-discovery journey as an Idealist/Catalyst and exploring on best possible solutions for my own health in Traditional Chinese Medicine path, I know that I was solely motivated by intuitively trusting my own body wisdom for survival and that was the best decision on that moment.
It is also one of the sure signs that an individual is experiencing exhaustion and burnout. My sign of writer’s burnout were manifested as early as 2010-2011. My hand palms were hot enough to melt a small bar of chocolate in my grip for several minutes ! My body called me for help, but I ignored how important it was due to a combination of blind stubborness, being cocky and lack of knowledge and awareness. As a result, I have to take a dramatic and radical decision when the things went too far.
Writer’s Burnout And Self-Care
Retirement is not an absolute solution to writer’s burnout. It is only serves as a last resort. I took that decision after realizing that pursuing in Malay Creative Writing/Literature was no longer meaningful and it was obviously destroying me inside and out, sooner or later. Other good or better possible solutions to writer’s burnout are still available, especially when it is still in the early stage when a writer just only experiencing hot palms.
In my honest two cents, the best way to solve it in early stage is by doing some acupuncture or acupressure sessions and combining it with some spiritual activities like praying or reciting Holy Scriptures. And doing flower bath or rock salt bath for several weeks as an additional activity is also very helpful by Allah’s Power and Permission.
Acupuncture sessions must be done by a pro by appointments, but we can do our own acupressure massage sessions at home.
There are three places to four acupressure spots that we can apply some deary massages when we are experiencing hot palms. Honestly, it can reduce the hotness and so, that hand sweats.
The first two spots ( heart-related HT7 and HT8 ) are shown in the first picture :
And the other two ( PC6 and PC8 ) are shown in picture below :
We can put essential oils at the massaging spot before massaging/kneading it, to make the experience more delight and meaningful. I choose white musk oil from Haruman Luqman.
Experiencing the difference in one or two days.
For those who are interested to go for some further reading, here are two interesting articles written by the practioners:
• http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/exam/internal_sweaty_palms.html
• http://nicholassieben.com/heartache-disappointment-depression-soothing-heart-pain-with-acupuncture/