When Rest Isn't Enough: My Health Wake-Up Call

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Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right but something still feels wrong? That's exactly where I found myself recently. I was prioritising rest, setting boundaries and practicing all the self-care principles I teach, yet my body was still shutting down.

This episode takes you on my unexpected journey from severe exhaustion to emergency hospitalisation after discovering critically low iron levels and internal bleeding requiring surgery. I'm sharing this vulnerable story not for sympathy, but because it highlights a crucial truth: sometimes our bodies need more than just rest, they need medical intervention. When persistent exhaustion, dizziness or other symptoms linger despite your best efforts at self-care, professional medical assessment becomes essential.

My health crisis also exposed how our family system had become unsustainably dependent on me. Coming home from hospital to household chaos wasn't about my husband's efforts (he was doing his best) but about the realization that I'd been carrying too much for too long. This experience has become a catalyst for teaching my children greater awareness beyond themselves and building their capacity to contribute meaningfully to our family. By carrying everything ourselves, we often unknowingly prevent our children from developing crucial life skills and awareness.

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed with family responsibilities or ignoring your body's signals that something isn't right, this episode offers permission to stop carrying it all. Don't wait for a health crisis to restructure your family responsibilities or get those blood tests done. Remember that true self-care sometimes means asking for help, delegating responsibilities to your children (even young ones) and trusting medical professionals when your intuition says something isn't right.

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Episode Transcript

Mel (00:18):
Welcome to Beyond Organised , the podcast that helps you
simplify your life and amplifyyour purpose.
I'm Mel Schenker, life coach,speaker, founder of She's
Organised, but, more importantly, a wife and mum of four little
kids.
If you've ever felt overwhelmed, like you're constantly
juggling everything but neverquite catching up, this is the
place for you.
Here we go beyond just thetidying up and creating systems.

(00:42):
We're talking about real-lifestrategies that bring order to
your life, but also we talkabout the things beyond the
organizing, the things thatreally matter, like your
parenting relationships and somuch more.
So grab your coffee and let'sdive in.
I'll be honest, I wasn'tplanning to release an episode.

(01:02):
This week.
I have been incredibly unwelland yesterday, as of recording
this, I actually ended up inhospital.
I have got surgery planned forTuesday, so the day after this
comes out and I'm still feelingpretty weak and wanted to share
something, though, that's beensitting on my heart.

(01:23):
I'm not recording this becauseI feel the pressure to show up
and you know I have to get anepisode out every week, like
with how sick I've been.
I'm pretty sure I could havehad a week off, but I wanted to
walk through exactly sort ofwhat's been happening and
hopefully it can be a bit of areminder for you.

(01:45):
So, again, it's going to be abit of a short one again this
week and, I think, an importantone, though, to maybe just put
away in the back of your mind incase something like this comes
up in your future.
So today we're talking a bitabout.
You know what happens when restjust isn't enough, when you've

(02:07):
been doing all the things youknow, saying no, slowing down,
taking care of yourself, butsomething just still feels off.
So last week I shared anepisode on the importance of
rest, and I still believe thatis really important.
Rest isn't lazy.
It is absolutely essential toour overall productivity cycle.

(02:29):
It's what keeps us going,really.
But over the past few months Ihave been prioritizing it.
I've been going slower, I'vebeen saying no more, I've been
letting things slide that don'tneed to be actioned straight
away.
But even with all of that, Iwasn't getting any better.
So I was completely exhausted,dizzy, breathless, high-headed,

(02:53):
even after doing the most basicthings.
So I went and got some bloodtests done and the results were
well confronting, but also notsurprising once I knew what it
was.
So my iron is critically low,like almost no iron in my body
at all.
So I'm severely anemic and ontop of that I've got some

(03:15):
internal bleeding somewhere.
So that's what the surgery onTuesday is for.
Now I'm not sharing any of thisfor sympathy.
I am okay and I believe that itcan all be fixable and I will
be back on my feet in no time.
And I've also got good supportaround me, including Family Next
Door, which is great.
But I am sharing this because Iknow how easy it is to push

(03:36):
aside those niggling feelingsthat we're already doing
everything that we can.
So sometimes you're doingeverything that you should be,
you're resting, you're lookingafter yourself, you're setting
the boundaries, you're doing allthe things that I even teach on
and I was practicing what Ipreach.
But even then your body canstill cry out for help, and

(04:00):
that's when you do need to takeit a bit further.
So if at any point you end upfeeling off and you can't quite
explain why, just get thoseblood tests done.
So yes, depending where you arein the world, it can cost a bit
of money and all of that.
But being armed with theknowledge of what's going on
inside you is so much moreimportant.

(04:23):
You know I talk about self-care.
And self-care isn't just anairy-fairy I'm saying this to
look good kind of thing it'sabout proactively checking in on
your body and getting theinformation you need to actually
take care of yourself.
So, as of recording this Sundaynight, you know I'll take you

(04:45):
back a little bit to yesterdayjust to let you in a little bit
on my life, and hopefully it'snot too embarrassing.
So you know, after hours andhours of vomiting and I ended up
fainting, honestly, honestlythought I was dying my husband
called an ambulance and I endedup in an emergency, and it was a

(05:07):
long day and I did get an ironinfusion, which I had planned
for Tuesday as well, but I gotthat earlier, which is good.
But when I came home it waspretty confronting.
The house was in chaos.
So, you know, apart from thevery stark visuals in front of

(05:32):
me, there was something elsethat hit me, and it's not just
that I've been unwell, it's thatI've been holding too much for
too long.
Now I really want to be clearhere, though this is not about
blaming my husband.
He's doing his best, caring forthe kids.
He even cleaned and he's tryingto hold things together, but

(05:52):
lately my kids are going crazy,making mess quicker than they
can clean.
So it made me realize something, though that the way our
family's been running has reliedon me too heavily, and now that
I'm out of action a bit, it isexposing this need for change.

(06:12):
So, you know, I've always beenthe one to handle the cleaning
and the organizing and themental load, and I'm quite happy
to do that, though I likethings being my way.
So I need to actually learn tolet go a little and, to you know
, let my kids step up and do abit more too.

(06:34):
That it's not just aboutgetting it done quickly, getting
it done my way.
It is actually about getting itdone my way.
It is actually about teachingthem that by me carrying the
full load, no one else has thecapacity to grow.

(06:56):
So it's teaching them how to dotheir bit in the household and
eventually, their capacity isgoing to learn to grow too.
Because, yes, we have set things, we have what we call money,
meals, and they do their littlechores throughout the week and
they get paid on a Sunday nightand all that kind of stuff, but
the truth is, just doing the fewthings on their list really
isn't enough.
If I'm unwell and I'm out ofaction.

(07:16):
They actually need to recognizethat and learn what more they
can do.
That's appropriate for theirage.
And they know that I'm sick,they know that I'm unwell, but
they still haven't even thoughtof anything but themselves,
which I get is typical for a lotof kids.
But it is good for them tostart learning how to recognize

(07:38):
when people need help, and itstarts in the home.
I do believe that.
So I've had them doing somebasic cleaning and putting their
shoes away and all that kind ofstuff today and, yeah, there
were a bit of complaints, butit's hopefully making them
realize that I've been doing alot of this stuff and it's a lot

(08:00):
for one person to take on.
So, if anything, this is justwaking me up to realizing I
actually need to train my kidsto step up and actually
recognize what's going on aroundthem a little bit more, not
just be so self-absorbed withthings.

(08:20):
Look, they're good kids, butI'm not training them as well as
what I could be, and this hasbeen a bit of a wake-up call for
that.
So you know, it's stillsomething that I'm learning, and
even with self-care, that wasthe final pillar for me.
So I talk about the fivepillars of organizing, and that

(08:42):
was sort of that last one for methat really helped form the
overall structure that I've got,because it's one that I ignored
for way too long.
I just did everything myselfand just pushed through and
power on, and that's kind ofwhat made me snap in the end,
and so I really have been well.
I feel I've been a lot moreproactive with it and

(09:04):
prioritizing it a lot more.
But, as I said, rest is notalways enough.
So it is important that ifsomething feels off, even when
you're doing all the rightthings, get curious about it,
check your blood, ask questions.
Don't wait for your body toforce you to stop.

(09:25):
And I even knew all of thatstuff.
That's why I was resting,because I know that if you push
your body too hard, it's goingto make you stop anyway.
I knew all that stuff and yet Istill ended up in this position
by me pushing through andthinking I was just feeling this
way because of how much I havegoing on in my life with kids

(09:46):
and business and so on.
It still nearly was the end ofme.
So it is time to start makingsome shifts and I encourage you
to not wait for burnout or acomplete health crisis, to
restructure your family routines, teach your kids, stretch their

(10:07):
capacity and rebalance the loadnow, before you're in this
situation, because the truth iswe're never meant to do this all
alone, and nor should we haveto.
We are allowed to ask for help,even from our kids, even if
they're little, there is stuffthat they can learn.
Even if it's just awareness,that's a big thing.

(10:30):
So, anyway, that's it from metoday, a shorter one.
I'll keep you posted on socialswith how things are going and
how I go from surgery on Tuesday, but I want to thank you for
letting me show up here, sort ofin an imperfect way, again this
week.
I do enjoy doing this podcastand I have got some more guests

(10:55):
lined up for future weeks whichI'm really excited to share with
you.
We'll get back on, but for me,this podcast is about sharing my
journey as well and the thingsthat I'm learning along the way.
So you're not going to get someperfect, polished piece that I
walked through 10 years ago.
You're going to get the stuffthat I'm walking through and

(11:15):
learning right now.
And yeah, it is prettyvulnerable for me because you
know, as a coach and that youknow I'm helping mums, I'm
helping women with a lot ofthese things in life and there's
still that little part of methat's like I still haven't
quite got this right.
But I think that also is whatmakes me good at what I do,
because I'm still in it and I'mstill learning and growing and

(11:38):
it's fresh and I know that I canhelp with the things that I'm
learning.
So I'm kind of putting myvulnerability and all of that
you know, all aside and justgetting it out there in the
hopes that it can help you inbeing able to recognize signs
when needed, but also to get onthe front foot and get your
family to start tightening themup a little bit more and helping

(12:00):
them become a bit more aware,because you just don't even
realize as moms how much we takeon just with the little things,
until you're kind of taken outof the picture.
So anyway, I hope that thisepisode spoke to you and if
you've got questions or anythingyou want me to go through, just
please submit them.

(12:21):
The details are in thedescription and you know.
If anything else, if you neededpermission to just stop
carrying it all, let this be it.
If you loved this episode,don't forget to hit subscribe so
you don't miss what's comingnext.
And if you want to continue theconversation, you can connect
with me on Instagram at @shes.
organised.
Or, for some free resources,head over to beyondorganised.

(12:43):
com toolkit.
Remember, organising is a toolto live the purposeful life
beyond it.
See you next time.