At home, you drink another glass of wine and eat too much because you skipped lunch. You suddenly remember that article you promised to write (by yesterday) for your volunteer organization. So you finish the article and answer some work emails while you’re at it. In bed your head is buzzing too much to sleep and that clenching feeling never left your stomach all day. Your partner wants to chat, but you just want to curl in a ball.
Sound familiar?
Do you recognise some of the symptoms of stress that cropped up in your day?
Trouble concentrating, forgetting things, irritability, rapid heartbeat, problems sleeping, over/undereating, isolating yourself, using alcohol to relax. Did you even notice that these symptoms span across your mind, body, emotions, and behavior?
I’ve always lived a busy life, working full time in corporate, and running my business as a health coach. Then there were all the family obligations.
It’s not by choice we’re pulled in so many directions and end up living a high-pressure life. We have to and we even want to, but our mind and body are trying to tell us something when we experience these aches, mood swings, and overreliance on substances.
Stress is there for a reason – to tell us something in our life is concerning us.
Stress is external and internal. Life changes, relationships and simply being too busy are external forces that affect us. Negative self-talk, perfectionism, and lack of assertiveness are internal, self-generated causes of stress.
We have control over some of these stressors, but not all. What helps is to develop a toolkit of practical strategies and strong habits built around nutrition, exercise, mindset, self-talk along with play and relationships. This allows you to have a high-performing career, amazing health, and a happy personal life.
This toolkit centres around balance. The goal is to adjust your daily activities to strike balance between work, relationships, and relaxation. Balancing the demands of busy work and home life can be achieved by regularly reviewing and assessing your priorities while not compromising on your health and success at work.
A coach can help you with this.
Here are some examples of what helped me achieve balance in my busy life. Prioritized what I value most highly, created a boundary between my work and personal time, incorporated regular gentle exercise and good nutrition in my day, practiced meditation, spent time with friends who make me happy, and rested when I felt fatigued. There are many activities that help you achieve balance in your life. Try a few simple ones to start. Keep going if they work for you and replace ones that don’t with something else. Try to include activities, strategies, and goals that factor in your body, mind and behavior
What I noticed was that the symptoms of stress I felt in my body and mind reduced. My health improved and I experienced greater job satisfaction. I focused better and generally enjoyed myself more. Most importantly, I was able to recognise my stress triggers and use my toolkit to meet the challenges life throws head on.
The events we described at the start of this article might not change. They’re outside your control. But with a little balance, what changes is your response. You wake rested. The kids bickering and the interruptions at work bother you less, so you can deal with them in a level-headed way. You don’t overeat because you missed your lunch. When you get home you don’t have that article to write because you finished it by the due date. Instead, you have a meaningful conversation with your partner before drifting off into restful sleep.
How does that sound?
To find out how I help ambitious women living high-pressure lives build emotional resilience and stress management so you can transform the way you live and work in this complex, fast-changing world, book a free discovery call with me today.
