I just can’t balance it all. Work deadlines, kids sport, financial obligations, commitments to family, integrity with friends, balancing health, it’s just too much.
The obligations and requirements in the daily life of a woman can become overwhelming, taxing and most of all – stressful. Stress is your body’s response to certain challenging or dangerous situations and your body will release hormones as a result. This can work well in the face of sudden danger as adrenaline can be released to help you better respond, however, stress can come in many forms, many ways and the result is not always as beneficial.
Stress will affect everyone in different ways, however, some common side effects of stress are:
- Lack of energy
- Lack of focus
- Headaches
- Trouble with sleep
- Eating too much
- Not eating enough
- Drug or alcohol misuse
- Skin issues
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Feeling of lack of control
- Easily aggravated
- Lowered sex drive
These symptoms can be short lived responses to short term stress but long term chronic stress can cause the symptoms to last for a lot longer and at greater intensities.
On top of this, studies have shown that stress affects women differently to men and they are more likely to experience the symptoms of it.
So if we know stress can cause us a lot of grief and we know we’re physiologically more likely to experience them, how can we begin working on reducing our stress levels? The four steps to success!
1: Write down a list of the things that are currently causing you stress and choose one cause to work on this week.
Example: Financials, fitness, kids, work load, deadline for study. Choice – Fitness.
2: Write out why this option is causing you stress and your desirable outcome/goal with it.
Example: I feel like I am not putting enough time or effort into my fitness. I’m so short on time that even thinking about working out stresses me out at the moment. I would like to have at least 2 x per week in which I can put time aside for my fitness.
3: Brainstorm ways you could move yourself just one step forward towards your goal.
Example: I could write a plan for the week and schedule in just 2 x 20min walks, I could ring my old Trainer and see if they can fit me in for 2 x sessions this week to help get me back on track, I could aim to get just one workout in this week and go to a fitness class, I could do 2 of my work meetings as walking meetings and kill two birds with one stone.
4: Choose one option to move forward with and schedule and plan your action forward.
Example: Walking meetings – I will look at my schedule now and choose which two meetings would be most appropriate to have as walking meetings. I will then email the co-workers involved in each and let them know.
Remember the 4 steps to success don’t work unless you do. Don’t allow the stress of the week or the strive for perfection stop you from moving just one step forward towards your goal. Reignite your importance and priority in your self care and take action towards lowering your stress today!
Last but not least, as always, if you are having trouble with any of your 4 steps to success, don’t hesitate to contact me through our contact page on this site or our socials.
When women support each other, incredible things happen.
Jx
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