It was a bad month for me. I had constant episodes of acute headaches, which the doctor told me looked like migraine, which was worrying.

In a place like Bangalore, life’s fast and commutes too long. And with both of us working, there are endless things that take time to get knocked off the personal to-do list.

Now, for the last few years, I have been used to putting in 12 or more working hours every day and since last 3 years, have been spending close to 2-3 hours on the road during the peak hours. Leave aside the 6-7 odd hours of sleep, this was leaving only about a couple of hours for me to do all the other stuff on routine days.

These factors combined with the highly disordered traffic sense which often is irritating, the constant demands on all fronts which often is challenging, and own expectations which often are exacting, were pushing me and I was somewhere getting burdened and worked up. Which was leading to those headaches.

I had been eating well, exercising regularly, and had generally been healthy the past year. And I had taken steps in the workplace to ensure my workload could be delegated or distributed as much as possible. Therefore, when the doctor mentioned this might be due to stress building up in the system, I decided to take a long hard look at what I was doing wrong.

As I started figuring out things, 3 aspects stood out – I was spending too much time in traffic on weekdays that was leaving me with very little to do otherwise, I wasn’t doing anything for myself on weekends and they were being spent working or sitting idle, and I was rushing through life with family instead of savouring it slowly.

Naturally, I have taken some remedial steps to handle these aspects. First and foremost, I have started travelling to and fro from office early in the morning. That has helped me cut down my travel time by at least a third and given me time to spend at home or office to get things done.

Secondly, I have started writing this blog again. It has given me a tool to speak my mind and tell what I want to. It’s like giving wings to a person to let him fly. Shackles have been broken and creative juices have started flowing again.

And lastly, I have decided to take things slowly during weekends, with a lot of nudging from my wife. Apart from work commitments, which sometimes require my time, I try and spend as much time with my wife and daughter doing regular things like talking, having meals, going for a stroll in the park, enjoying a movie together, playing games, reading, and so on. Regular life stuff, which has helped me rejuvenate.

All of these have definitely helped in lowering the rush in my head. The headaches have gone away, no migraine as of now. And I am able to get more done on a daily basis, while building my relationship bonds stronger.

Sometimes, we just go off track in our life’s race and continue to run hard but in a direction that doesn’t have a very good end. Thankfully, I discovered the wrong direction I took pretty early and have been able to make corrections. Just hope to continue without going off-track again.

As for this blog, this has been a blessing in disguise…