Are you in a position where you are juggling lots of balls and spinning lots of plates? The need to be in control, stay in control and operate at an almighty speed is literally making you feel like you’ve lost the plot. Add onto that, the needs and emotional requirements of others, and you’ve got a bit of a perfect storm going on here.
So how do you cope? Being in that sympathetic nervous system? Ironically, it’s called ‘Sympathetic’ but there’s nothing sympathetic about being in fight or flight all the time. It feels like emotional and nervous regulation is impossible right, with all these demands and time constraints coming in from left, right and centre. Coping is something you have to do, decompressing is going to be your friend. You can still do ‘Stuff’ but in a different way.
What you want to be really mindful of is the state you are in. Does your body feel stressed? Are you in your head? Because where there is an alert response then the body will be releasing cortisol and cortisol literally stops muscle growth, which in its own right slows down your metabolism and is breaking down the body, so stress is not your friend.
So, can you get stuff done but be more relaxed about it? Yes! This is my advice
There’s going to be two ways you do anything, one, with a sense of heightened stress and anguish or two, relaxed and composed. Always lean in to the latter. You can still do everything, but relax with it, ease your body, stay calm and be in your body.
I know this is not the time to tell you to do yoga, or find more time to go for a nice walk, I don’t even think you have the time to be honest. But what you can do is flip the switch for where you are now. Relax more, bring joy into the mix.
If you’re child is climbing all over the place, the dinners cooking and the phones ringing, react as much as you like and fight fires, OR bring that body into it, and laugh, roll your eyes and be sarcastic, ‘Here we go, mad house central!’ bring a lightness into it. That energy shift right there will have a massive effect on the tasks and your mental state but more importantly your body.
It can be done. Let me tell you a story;
I was in Hospital once, I was bit zoned out on whatever was in my drip, I can’t really remember it to be honest, but I remember two people, there were two nurses. They started their shift at the same time and had the same responsibilities. One nurse was flying around the ward, forgetting a few things, coming back, writing things down and then her pen ran out and she had to go and get another one and then she came back, I mean, she was like a Hospital butterfly but she had an energy of chaos around her. To be expected right, being a Nurse is not easy!
But then! There was another one, she seemed to do everything right first time, her energy was calmer, she seemed less attached, like she wasn’t bothered if the fire alarm went off or what went down, she smiled a lot and laughed with me about a few things. She seemed to take things in her stride. Nurse number two didn’t have a pen that ran out, or a spilt drink or aches in her legs. Nurse number two couldn’t give much energy about anything to be honest, but she was joyful and more relaxed. Nurse number two was a pleasure to be around but also, she got everything done, ONCE!
Do you see what I mean! Same responsibilities, same stress…but Nurse number two didn’t have the emotional attachment, the worry and the anxiety. She was subscribed to getting things done in a calmer way making her more efficient and less chaotic. You see misery loves company and stress loves stress. What you are feeling on the inside is bringing more and more and more of it. You know, when one thing goes wrong another thing will go wrong and another thing. So bring it down a notch, you will get everything done, you are incredible, you operate like no one I know, but you don’t need to be in a headlock about it, switch the energy into a more content, joyful state and you will notice the Universe will work with you and you will just flow and get so much more done because there’s no resistance.
Resistance is self-doubt, stress and anxiety. It stops everything from flowing!
So enjoy your chaos and roll with it.
I love you very much,
Katie x