Feeling angry? Snapping at the kids? Struggling to concentrate at work? Feeling overwhelmed? Sounds as though you might be stressed.
Piles of boxes
Are you carrying around more boxes than is comfortable?
Yes, I said boxes. Let me paint a word picture for you. Think of each of the different stresses, obligations, and chores in your life as a single box. Imagine them all piled higgledy-piggledy on top of each other. You carry that pile everywhere you go, trying not to drop any of your boxes as you go about your day. When that pile of boxes gets too big, it becomes overwhelming. That may be the first time you recognise that you feel stressed.
How does chronic stress affect you?
Your body shifts to fight or flight mode when you are overwhelmed by stress. Notice the tension in your neck and shoulders, increased heart rate and blood pressure, breathlessness or shallow breathing, poor sleep and fatigue.
Stress affects your digestive system and can lead to reflux or indigestion after eating.
When you live with high levels of stress for a long period of time, it can affect your immune system leading to a tendency to get sick more often. In some extreme cases, chronic stress can even lead to a stroke or heart attack.
You may also notice your behaviour change so that you become more angry, snappy, impatient, impulsive, and distractible.
Chronic high levels of stress often lead to diagnosable mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
In short, chronic stress is not your friend. Stress is, in fact, your enemy. I call stress a ‘silent assassin in our complex, modern world’.
3 steps to fight stress
How do you fight an enemy whose tactics are to keep you feeling so overwhelmed? What’s your battle plan? They’re good questions.
The first difficulty is that when you are stressed, you simply don’t feel in control of what’s going on in your life. So, let me show you 3 simple steps to help you take back control of you.
Step 1:
Imagine placing your big pile of boxes on the floor. Now, step back from the boxes and stretch your arms, roll your shoulders, and gently roll your head to loosen the muscles.
Step 2:
Breathe! Take a deep breath, hold it, then let it out. Repeat as needed.
Step 3:
Feeling calmer? Now it’s time to plan your attack.
Look at your pile of boxes and deal with any that can be quickly dealt with.
Then spend a little time prioritising your remaining boxes. Think about how important and how urgent each one is. If something is both important and urgent, put it at the top of your to-do list. If something is neither important nor urgent, send it to the bottom of the list.
Taking back control
Follow these 3 steps to overcome the silent assassin, stress. Step back into control of your own life.
One final word about taking back control of your life. As you breathe deeply, take time to recognise that you probably can’t control everything going on in your life. You can choose, however, to be in control of your own response to what’s happening around you.
In parting, may you win every battle you face against that old enemy, stress!
