Anxiety and stress go hand in hand. When you become stressed, you produce symptoms of anxiety. Here are some ways to deal with stress and cope with the things that make you feel overwhelmed.
Pause for a Moment
Counter-intuitive, but effective. When feeling stressed out, it feels like you have numerous things to do and not enough time, but taking a moment to be still can bring your focus to the present, calm your mind, and boost your focus.
Stop Doing Too Much
A lot of us have an innate desire to please others and make others happy. Our good intentions results in us not being able to say “no” to things, or commit to more than is realistically possible. Recognize the next time you feel like saying “no” to something, but feel obligated to say “yes”. Agreeing to do many things that are unimportant to you can leave you with little time for the things that actually matter to you.
Adjust Goals
Sometimes we expect too much out of ourselves and set goals that are beyond our reach. Our initial reaction to not achieving goals can be overwhelming stress, criticizing ourselves, and feeling like a failure. It’s important to recognize when we set ourselves for failure and readjust goals so that they’re realistically attainable.
Release Control
A source of stress is the feeling of needing to be in control at all times. This is a common stress small business owners faces. It’s difficult to release control and trust that others can do a task as well as they expect, so we end up micromanaging or want to do everything ourselves. Once we realize that we don’t have time to do it all, stress kicks in and we’re left with a giant mountain of tasks that need to be accomplished – alone.
Prioritize
When you’re engaging in multiple activities, it’s important to realize that you can’t do everything all at once. Instead of stressing about the many things you have to juggle, find 1 or 2 tasks that you give your full attention to. Don’t think that you’re pushing the other activities aside, you’re merely shifting your current focus. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when you’re not haphazardly multitasking.
Eliminate
If it doesn’t serve a purpose, let it go. Do you absolutely have to do every single thing that’s on your checklist? Is there something that you could postpone with little consequence? Could you say “no” to something have have more time to do something else that is more important to you?
Trifecta of Health
Eat healthy, have enough sleep, and exercise. Those three things are necessary in order to maintain good health. When we’re healthy, we’re better able to manage the things in life that can cause us to stress.
Listen to yourself
Your body is smart, listen to it. If you’re feeling drained, uninspired, and stressed out, don’t keep pushing yourself. Listen to your body and create a self care plan if need be so that you can take care of yourself.