Don’t Let Your Brain Lie to You!
Hi There,
May might be Mental Health Awareness Month, but managing stress is a year-round, daily discipline. Sadly, we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to managing our stress. Between self-imposed demands and the false illusion that choosing “quantity of activities” is necessary over “quality of life”, motivated professionals have been unusually stressed for a prolonged period of time. The result: Many dig themselves deeper and deeper into the black hole of stress.
Would you believe me if I told you that freedom from this feeling of overwhelm and overdrive is simple? It involves no pills, supplements, treatments, operations, or even PT. Only self-care is needed. While it’s true that self-care doesn’t necessarily take much time, if your reflex is, “I don’t have enough time to take care of myself”, your brain is lying to you. That’s what stress does insidiously— making you believe in scarcity, and that you have no control or not enough resources, including time.
Here’s a simple yet powerful exercise I take clients through when they’re feeling overwhelmed due to perceived time deficits. The math is compliments of Laura Vanderkam, a productivity expert and past DRIVEN speaker:
We have 168 hours in a week:
55 hours for work (more than this will decrease your
productivity)56 hours for sleep
57 hours for everything else!
Seeing these numbers, does it now seem possible to indulge in yourself and your well-being for an hour each day? How about 15 minutes a day?
If your answer is “no”, consider that stress is causing you to lie to yourself. After all, if a loved one called and said they needed to speak to you, you’d magically carve out 15 minutes for them without question. Right? So how about committing that kind of time to taking care of yourself?
Here’s my challenge to you: Take 15 minutes today and make a list of all of the tiny things you’d love to do but never seem to have time to do— things that make you feel happy, healthy, calm or fulfilled. Then enter an appointment into your calendar for 15 minutes each day between now and next Tuesday to escape into one of these activities. I’m serious!
Next week, we’ll look at how to continue to recover from the effects of stress. I’m done here; go and make that list!
Cheers!
-Deborah
Deborah Goldstein
DRIVEN Professionals / Forbes / Linkedin
info@drivenpros.com | LinkedIn
DRIVEN Professionals, 35 Adrienne Lane, Garrison, NY 10524