When it comes to waves of busyness in our lives it can be very hard not to let stress take over. Recently I was thinking about what it is exactly that triggers the stress. Often it happens when I feel like I have more to do than I can possibly fit in a day. When it feels like a huge growing list of things that need to be done get pushed back another day and another day. The feeling like I can’t keep up stresses me out.
I decided to take a look at the bigger picture to regain perspective. Sometimes it feels like every task that needs to be done is super important and knowing that it is not done yet stresses me out. However, I was thinking how important is it really? When I thought about it, most things feel important in the moment, but they are not so super important that they validate stress in my life. Why should I let the to-dos take away from the quality of my life? After all, I am the one who decides how much weight to give them and how I am going to react.
99% of the time the things that stress me out I don’t believe should carry a lot of weight in life. The phone calls that need to be made, the tasks gone undone, they are not life or death, so why do I sometimes treat it like they are? It is something I have to figure out because I don’t want to be less present because of what I allow my mind to be consumed with.
Often I find myself in a vicious cycle where I feel like I have so much to do I end up staying up really late trying to get things done, sleeping less, which in turn makes me more irritable and worn out, and it is repeat the next day. Moving is so much work and I haven’t allowed myself any down time because I am overwhelmed with how much there is to do. I think this is my vital mistake.
Like a hamster on a wheel I continually burn myself out more and more without adequate rest, making things feel 1000 times harder or more stressful than they should be. Not to mention what happens to my patience. Patience is crucial for me to be happy with my parenting and how I treat my husband.
What I am trying to say in a really roundabout way is that none of my to-dos are important enough that I should give them the amount of weight that I do allowing them to decrease my happiness or quality of life. It is time to start choosing differently and make rest more of a priority. I think everything else will fall into place. I just need to stay strong and have confidence that it will.
Can you help me? How do you reduce stress?
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