This article has been syndicated from Coffee With Summer, an InfluenceHer Collective Member. Read the full post here.
I don’t know about you but one thing I have learned in life so far is that life can get pretty busy out of the blue. More often than not, you can never see it coming, so you never have time to properly prepare yourself for the whirlwind you’re about to be engulfed in. It can be rough. I know this kind of busyness all too well. How about you?
Even though I am up to my neck in to-do’s, I have been trying to remember how to breathe and center myself. Here are some things I have been doing my best to focus on to reduce my stress during this crazy, busy time of life.
- Don’t ignore your stress
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One bad habit that I have is trying to ignore my stress. I’ll try to convince myself that I’m not really that stressed out and then I’ll try to continue on with my tasks. Well, that never works out too well, haha. Ignoring my stress has only ever just brought on more stress for myself, as well as anxiety.
Acknowledge the anxiety and stress that you’re feeling, as well as any other feelings and choose to breathe. Acknowledge it all for a moment. Validate yourself that it’s okay to feel anxious and overwhelmed. Taking a moment to do just that can help you reset and start to find balance again.
- Focus on your breathing
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I know that this is a *typical* thing people encourage you to do when you’re stressed out. As cliché as it sounds, taking time to focus on breathing properly, can help you stay grounded, instead of growing more anxious and overwhelmed. Something that’s been helping me when I really feel the stress adding up is to take deep breaths in and out. I’ll count to 5 each way and take at least 10 of them. It’s something very simple and takes less than a minute to do, but it can work wonders. As cliché, as it sounds, taking time to focus on breathing properly, can help you stay grounded, instead of growing more anxious and overwhelmed.
- Prioritize well
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Am I the only one who feels like it’s harder than ever to prioritize when you’re stressed out? When I’m stressed, it’s usually because I am holding everything to a high priority. While it can seem that everything on your list is a top priority, chances are, some of them are not.
- Let go of unrealistic expectations
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When I look back at the times of high stress in my life, I realized that I always piled on more stress because of the expectations I was putting on myself. The fact of the matter is that sometimes a task isn’t going to get done the way or when you want it to. Yep, #realtalk. So, be willing to let go of expectations when you need to. Remember that you can do anything but you can’t do everything.
- Don’t ‘should’ yourself
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I should have, I should have, I should have… sound familiar? If you’re somewhat of a perfectionist like me, you probably struggle with “should-ing” yourself quite often. The thing with focusing on what you think you should have done is that it only ever leaves you feeling shame and it prevents you from moving onward in a positive manner. It adds extra pressure when you’re already feeling the pressure of stress. So, don’t “should” yourself. Instead, after a task is finished or a situation is done with, simply move on and don’t look back.
When life is busy and I’m under a lot of stress, it’s easy to stray to the side of being nasty to myself. It’s something I’m working really hard on changing. Choosing to be patient with yourself isn’t easy but choose to look at it as a positive challenge. Give yourself room to grow during the busy seasons because yes, they are times of growth. Give yourself room to breathe. Give yourself an overabundance of grace. You got this.
Read the full post here.