Sieg, D., R.N. (2002). Stop Living Life Like an Emergency: Rescue Strategies for the Overworked and Overwhelmed. Washington, D.C.: LifeLine Press, a Regnery Publishing Company.
According to Sieg, Emergency Living is life-threatening and harms physical and emotional well-being, as well as relationships and overall quality of life by keeping people in a ôconstant state of chaos, crisis and confusionö (2002, p. xiii). Many of those who end up in emergency situations have created their own situation by living life as an emergency, rather than take each moment as it comes.
Chapter 1: Emergency Living (pages 1-14)
One of the many ways that emergency living comes about is staying busy by being busy, and therefore overdoing everything in life. Sieg puts forth seven warning signs for emergency living:
You are always running late-just a little.
You have accumulated piles everywhere: piles of clothing, piles of paper, and piles of piles you are going to get to someday.
You find yourself in one of three modes: ôhurry up,ö ôcatch up,ö or ôfed up.ö
You constantly lose things: your glasses, car keys or important dates such as someoneÆs birthday.
You have no patience for heavy traffic, grocery lines or anything else that takes too long.
You pride yourself on how much you get done and how fast you do it.
You frequently find yourself saying, ôWhen things slow down. . .ö
Sieg points that the most simple place to start is by recognizing that slowing down is initially uncomfortable. Then, slow down everything, how you speak, how you eat and drink, and how you listen. Instead of multi-tasking, do one think at a time, and learn to take breaks during the day where you are still and silent.
As Sieg explains, triage is where the nurse assesses the incoming patients by what they say and donÆt say. One of the first steps to slowing down is to ôsort through our own lives by itemizing, prioritizing, and sc...