Let’s face it: modern life is stressful.
Whether it’s work deadlines or financial worries or trying to keep your personal life in order, it feels like we’re always stressed about something in our lives. And when left unchecked, stress can take a toll on our physical health and emotional well-being. When we’re stressed, we can experience:
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Burnout (huge for business owners)
It’s important to find ways to deal with our stress and restore our energy and mental bandwidth. Not only will stress management make us feel better, but it’s vital for our health and future.
So how do we ditch it?
Manage stress with a soothing self-care routine
When you’re feeling stressed about something, the last thing you want to do is take time to focus on your self-care but you need to. Otherwise, it’s hard to shake off the fight and flight mode that you experience during stressful moments. That’s why building it into your daily or weekly routine can be helpful. If you already plan for it than you’re more likely to continue the routine.
Self-care may conjure images of expensive spa treatments or induce feelings of guilt and selfishness, but it’s essential to our well-being. It’s no different from professional athletes who incorporate a recovery routine after a competition or workout. Their recovery routine ensures that they get enough rest before their next challenge, so that they don’t risk injury or burnout.
You don’t have to be a professional athlete to deserve a recovery period. After experiencing moments of high stress, it’s important to consciously set aside time to relax and restore our energy.
Here are some self-care ideas below. Assess how you’re feeling and decide how you would like to spend your time.
- Go for a run. Sweating it out will help you release all those pent up emotions and the endorphins you get after a workout will leave you feeling so good.
- Sleep. Yes, sleep totally counts as self-care. Whether it’s taking a weekend nap or developing a calming night-time routine, good sleep habits are key to managing stress.
- Gratitude journal. Taking a moment to slow down and reflect on all the good in our lives can help shift our perspective and feel so restorative. You can incorporate gratitude journaling into your morning or evening routine to help round out your day.
Check in with yourself
We regularly take our vehicles in for an assessment, why not give the same attention and care into our bodies? At the end of the day or week, try checking in with yourself and assess where you’re at.
You can ask yourself:
- How am I feeling?
- Are I eating well? Getting enough veggies?
- Am I sleeping well?
- When was the last time I did something nice for myself?
- When was the last time I did something social?
Maybe you’ll find that you’ve been so busy at work that you’ve been relying on sugary foods to sustain you. Now that you’ve taken note, you can adjust and make a point of adding more healthy meals. Or maybe you’ve noticed that you’ve been going to bed late and that it’s been making you feel groggy throughout the week. Now you’ll be more mindful about your evening routine going forward.
While we can’t always prevent stress in our life, a regular check-in can help us identify what areas need our attention and help us manage our stress better in the long run.
Ready to challenge yourself to make you a priority? Download my selfcare challenge below to get started.
