A Simple Way to Reduce Stress
Ok, honesty time again here on Strong Inside Out.
I bet you read this blog and sometimes think:
“Oh how great for her that she’s got it all together.”
Well, put your little bit of sarcasm away ’cause I’m gonna come clean today…
Lately, I’ve been a stress wreck.
I’ve been traveling. My book’s finally at the designer after a month and a half of writing and rewriting. I’ve been trying to keep up with my blog-posting schedule but falling behind more than I’d like. My body is tired and sore most of the time because of my newfound love for yoga; I need to take more days off but my stress gets worse when I do.
I’ve been beating myself up a lot over not being able to do enough. Lately, I’m having a hard time keeping up with the life I am creating.
Everything I’ve been telling you guys–take it easy on yourself, listen to your body, let it go–is what I’ve been struggling with over the past couple months.
Because of all the excess stress, I’ve been fighting with the urge to give over to that negative, overwhelmed state.
As you well know, I pretty much refuse to be a victim to negative thinking nowadays, so I’ve been looking for ways to reduce stress.
Yoga has helped. Seeing friends and family has helped. But you know what’s really helped? I’ve just recently adopted a new motto for the moment:
Maybe this is just how it’s supposed to be right now.
The minute I started thinking this way, it was like I wiped that heavy stress off my shoulders.
Don’t get me wrong: there’s still some there, but it’s comforting to think this way. It did in fact reduce some of the pressure I was putting on myself.
Maybe I should accept this moment as it is because it’s getting me where I want to be.
Maybe this exhaustion is my body screaming at me to take a freaking nap once in a while!
Maybe I’m feeling overwhelmed because I have a lot of awesome sh** going on!
And that’s ok.
All of it. Because it’s not forever.
This, right now, is all I have guaranteed to me. So why don’t I breathe, and let it be what it is?
Why don’t I remember those many things I have to be grateful for when my mind gets stuck in the I’m-not-doing-enough mode?
I’m one of those people that believes everything happens for a reason.
All the awful things I’ve been through–and all the amazing things, too–have brought me to right now.
I have this moment thanks to those events.
If you’ve been following me since my re-launch or longer, you know that I almost gave up. I almost threw away this moment.
All of the things I sometimes take for granted today, I would have killed for back then.
A supportive, loving, fulfilling relationship.
Friends that encourage and challenge me to grow.
A business that is what I do for fun.
People changing their lives, overcoming their setbacks, and thanking me for helping them do it!
I have a lot to be thankful for. We all do.
No matter what your situation, there are so many things that seem to disappear from our consciousness when stress threatens to overwhelm us.
It’s easy to lose sight of the good things when life turns into chaos. It’s easy to get absorbed into the omnipresent gloom-cloud of misery that exists in our world today.
So when life gets crazy, maybe it’s best to know that it has to sometimes. Maybe this is our test: can you remember all the good things you’ve worked for when the negative forces are trying to direct your focus otherwise?
Maybe this is a time of transition. We all have them.
Maybe this is the break you’ve been wishing for; you just have to push through right now.
Maybe this is your chance to realize that even when you’re stressed out, you still have it pretty good.
Never lose sight of that fact: you have so many things to be grateful for.
The action plan today is this:
1. Take out a sheet of paper or open up a new document in Google docs or word (or Pages if you’re that kind of guy).
2. Start listing everything in life that is good. No matter how small. Everything. (Your kids, your car running ok, the plant outside that’s flowering, the fact that you can go to the market and buy just about any food you want at any time, etc.)
3. When you reach the bottom of the page, you can keep writing on the back, or you can stop.
4. You just proved to yourself that you have a whole page’s worth of things to be grateful for.
Now you can look at just some of the things that bring you happiness, even when happy isn’t coming naturally.
Post the sheet on your fridge.
Make each thing you listed a reminder in your iCal.
Write them on post-it notes and put them in places you’ll forget about so that you can rediscover them at random moments.
Just remember that you are blessed, however you want to translate that word into your own personal vocabulary.
So my life is hectic right now. That’s fine.
It’s hectic because I’m doing what I love and I’m striving to spread my message of empowerment to as many people as possible. If I need to be stressed to accomplish this goal, so be it.
Now I’m going to go take a nap.
What are you going to do? …or not do?
If you liked this post, check out How to Reconnect and Scared As Hell to Be Happy.
Have you visited me on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter? Please do!
photo 1 by kevin dooley, photo 2 by James Jordan, photo 3 by maf04
Amy – acceptance and living in the moment – what better ways to reduce stress!?! with a dose of counting your blessings. I think that’s a recipe not just to reduce stress but to live life to it’s fullest potential :)
Vishnu recently posted..Is Costa Rica paradise on earth?
Thank you, Vishnu! You sum it up perfectly!
I have been unreasonably stressed with a situation at work (that I didn’t even realize I had anxiety over), and relieving stress was really on my mind tonight. And you just happened to post a blog and it just happened to show up in my feed – so I must believe that your moment and I moment must have happened for a reason. Thank you for feeling blessed and following your moment to inspire others! I am blessed to have read this tonight. Thanks!
Bethany recently posted..My best #7
Bethany, this comment made my day! Thank YOU for sharing this sentiment with me. It means the world to me that a post I wrote could help you in such a way!
Hi Amy,
Having gratitude for our lives is a wonderful way to reduce stress. I like how you provide a specific set of steps to develop gratitude. A few years ago when I was facing some pretty intense challenges I started a gratitude list. Everynight and every morning I would write down 5 things I was thankful for. Each time I opened it, I looked at all the things I had been thankful for the week. After not too many weeks I found myself thinking “Gosh, look at how awesome my life is… I have this, and this, and this to be thankful for”.
But all of this being said, I do think there are moments in our lives when stress is beneficial. I know for me, that my stress has taught me immense things about myself. Also, as I go through stressful situations I become much more adept at dealing with stress. The more adept I become at dealing with stress the more I am able to accomplish in my life.
I think there is an interesting balance to be found.
Izzy recently posted..Breaking News: The Best Way to Make Money.. EVER!
Balance is definitely the key, Izzy.
Stress helped push me to my self-set deadline of launching my book on Monday. It worked, but man am I glad it’s over now!
I love your idea for a gratitude list. For a while I was keeping a gratitude journal, but stopped when it became second nature. I think having it to look at in the down times can serve as a reminder that it’s not always so bad.