Many of us have been on an adrenaline-fueled ride of juggling work, homeschooling, caring for children and/or parents, and learning a new way to live while trying to stay clean and eat a decent meal.
So much to do.
So much to think about.
The fear of dropping a ball.
The adrenaline rush.
Overwhelm.
Adrenaline works for an immediate threat, like a lion in the woods, but it’s a terrible fuel for your brain and overall well-being. And, in the long run, it will lead to burnout.
And, I’m gonna tell you something you already know, this is not a short-term deal. We’ve been in it for seven weeks, and there’s no clear end in sight. Speed and adrenaline are unsustainable.
Let’s address the overwhelm with some ease. Here are three ways to help ease overwhelm:
Build-in SLOWNESS:
Slowness is the sustainable fuel for your brain and overall well-being. Take a sticky note and write SLOW on it...
We’ve been tired around here lately.
If you are too, it’s okay.
It kinda makes sense because, ya know, we are in a Global Pandemic.
And, most likely, your life (like mine) has been flipped on its head.
The change, the stress, the unknown… can be exhausting.
And, there’s a good chance that you’re working more right now, especially if you have young children.
You’re learning how to do things in new ways, like being with your family non-stop or how to be alone.
Maybe, your business was sliced in half or your paycheck disappeared overnight.
So, you might be trying to cope and realizing that what you’d once done for self-care is no longer an option, or difficult at best.
Plus, you’re probably taking in lots more information and thinking about things you didn’t have to think about before (grocery shopping, finding a mask, schooling your kids, paying...
So, the other day I made a parenting foul.
It started with me having “a day” where I was feeling scared about the pandemic and what could happen and so sad about being in quarantine and what we could no longer do. What I really wanted was to spill my guts to my husband of my deepest, darkest fears so that they wouldn’t just be swirling around inside of me.
(I share the story in my video, but read below for some extra coaching tips).
So, I shooed my 7 and 3 ½-year-olds upstairs and told them to go watch a show. They ran upstairs, as they normally do, but then… (little did I know) sat at the top of the stairs to listen in while I spilled my guts.
I should have guessed they might do that (I think I invented that move!).
But, I didn’t think about it at the time, and they HEARD ME share some scary stuff.
I realized it when my 7-year-old came downstairs and asked directly about what I said and whether or not it was going to...
Didn't life feel differently a month ago?
On March 11th it seems like we went from a Coronavirus outbreak to a Global Pandemic overnight.
Over the last few weeks, we started social distancing and wearing masks. Learning how to homeschool and work from home. Or, file for unemployment. We’ve seen businesses close their doors, knowing that they may not open again. And, toilet paper is still hard to come by.
Many of us have felt our PRIMAL survival instincts take over and have been overwhelmed by what we’re facing and what’s next.
But, we can still find Ease during this Global Pandemic.
We can. And we will. And I’ll be here to help you do it.
Today, I want to remind you about the WORLDS we live in.
Yes, I did say WORLDS, because there’s actually two: Your outer world and your inner world.
Your OUTER world is what you can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. It’s physical in nature. It’s your workload, the numbers on the news,...
When this whole “thing” happened (schools closed, husband working at home, stay at home orders, etc) I started to HUSTLE again. I toughened up, tried to ignore my stress, and prepared to sacrifice.
Within a few days, I felt physical pain, exhaustion, mental fuzziness, and like I could cry or scream at the drop of a hat.
One afternoon I put my head down on the kitchen table and said to my husband, “I feel like I’m running a marathon that I didn’t train for, didn’t register for, but have been forced to run and now it’s mile 5 and I’ve hit the wall.”
In his oh-so-brilliant-way, my husband asked me, “So what do you do?”
“I don’t know. I can’t STOP! It’s not like I can sit down in the middle of a race,” I replied.
To which he responded, "WHY NOT?”
Many of us are responding just like I did saying, “I can’t...
Just before I kiss my daughter goodnight is when she tends to spill her guts to me.
Last night, she asked if she could play with her cousin this weekend. I said that we're going to do a video call with the whole family in the next couple of days.
She burst into tears.
On the surface, my seven-year-old has seemed pretty adaptable and cheerful with the life changes over the last few weeks, but underneath it all, she's really sad.
If you're feeling sad right now, I'll tell you what I told her, I feel sad right now too. And, it's okay to feel sad.
Collectively, we've experienced a lot of loss over the last few weeks.
I find myself missing the simple, normal, routines in life, like walking my daughter to the bus, working out at the gym, and strolling down the aisles of the grocery store.
I miss hugging my parents, going out to eat, and taking my girls to the playground.
All of these things represent life as I knew it....
Did you know that in the 1600s the University of Cambridge closed its doors for TWO YEARS after an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague?
During that time, Isaac Newton's academic career was put on hold.
He sought refuge in the English countryside where he developed what would become calculous and the theory of gravity and motion (while sitting beneath an apple tree).
It was a time of devastation AND a time where breakthroughs were occurring.
We can find Ease and create breakthroughs during this time.
The first step in the formula for EASE is MINDSET. Mindset is about recognizing how your mind is thinking and finding thoughts that feel better to you, because...
What you focus on expands.
Here are a few steps to help with your MINDSET right now:
1) If you're feeling scared, sad, or overwhelmed right now, it's OKAY. Allow yourself to cry, go outside and scream, and recognize that your emotions are normal. You are HUMAN...
Didn't life feel differently a week ago?
It seems like we went from a Coronavirus outbreak to a Global Pandemic overnight.
Now, we’re social distancing. Schools are closing. People are working from home. The stock market is plunging, and you can’t even buy toilet paper at Costco!
And none of us have EVER experienced this before in our lifetime.
It can be really scary and overwhelming. Many of us are feeling our PRIMAL survival instincts firing up, and then we're preparing, imagining what's next, and trying to keep calm and carry on.
So, how in the hell can we find EASE when we’re in the middle of a Global PANDEMIC?
We can. And we will. And I’ll be here to help you do it.
Today, let’s talk about the worlds we live in.
Yes, I did say WORLDS, because there’s actually two: Your outer world and your inner world.
Your outer world is what you can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. It’s physical in nature....
Stress can seem like an inevitable part of life. We’ve almost always got a full plate, and it can really wear us down. It can be so hard to get out from under it all.
What’s worse, managing stress can seem like another task we’ve got to add to our to-do lists. It can be a vicious cycle that’s tough to break free from.
Let me explain.
When I was in college, I was having a difficult time completing a story for a fiction writing course I was taking. I decided to tell myself that the story was already done, I simply had to get it from the non-physical “storyworld” on the page. I had to relax and let it come to me. “Whew, thank goodness this story is already done!” I told myself. The pressure was off and the story came to me.
I didn’t necessarily realize it at the time, but this strategy definitely makes a...
Sometimes when we’re stressed, we enter a sort of survival mode. We just do what we have to do to get through, to move on to the next task, to get through the day.
The week.
The month.
If we’re not careful, the month turns into a year and one day we look up and realize that stress is just eating away at us. Sometimes literally. It’s bad for our bodies. It’s bad for our minds. It’s bad for the people we love and care about.
I’ll share a few tips for unburdening yourself of chronic stress that runs your life over the next few weeks. I use these techniques in my own life and I share them with my clients, so they’re kind of tried and true.
You’ve probably heard it the saying, “You can’t pour...
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