You are doing everything right. You eat right. You get enough rest.
You get your fair share of exercise in during your week. You are on time for work. You love your kids. You are a very nice person. You even give to charity. You are doing all you can to do ‘it all’ right. BUT…
But you are not your ideal weight, you are always tired, you are still jiggly in places, you are not making enough money, your kids are cranky, you feel guilty when you see that guy on the sidewalk, you are not satisfied!
Seems like you are doing all you can and yet you are not where you should be. WHY?
Well, I am the first one to admit that I don't have all the answers and neither do you and neither does anybody else. It’s funny how in this day of Google and Siri we feel that we are entitled to know all the answers. Guess what, we are not!
Our role on this earth is not to figure how to have a stress-free life. Nor is it to live a life where we have all the answers. If we had all the answers then we could fix the world and we would live in a world of rainbows without rain, flowers without frost, puppies without poop, babies without crying and we would all be happy all the time. Yeah, right.
All we have is our best. That is truly the answer. If we really try our best to do our best then we will come as close as we can to this ‘perfect world’ that we want to exist. Some of the problems simply will never be solved. I think we need to find the issues that truly affect us, filter out the ones that don’t and let them go. Because we are exposed to so much media all the time we are exposed to issues that have existed for a long time but never affected us before and now we are stressed about them. We hear about tragedies all over the world just because the media want us to know about them. It’s not like we can fix them. We can always send money like some agencies want us to. But if we did send money to every problem we saw, nobody would have any money left. Even events close to home are sometimes too much to handle. We really don’t need to know everything that happens to everyone else. Especially when it comes through other people, like the media. It becomes gossip and we all know that gossip is harmful and hurtful.
So what is the solution to all this overwhelming stuff?
- You need to become your own filter. Filter out the info that really has no effect on you, that way you can focus your energy on yourself and your own family. I think if you can do some of that, you can become more positively focused on making your own world a better place.
- If you have less stress from outside sources, then you will be able to focus on solutions at home, like a little more time planning out your meals. Just a few extra minutes at the beginning of each week will really help meals for the rest of the week. If you are really organized, some people actually prep meals for a few days at a time. Me, I at least like to plan some of my meals, but actual prep is out of my range of organization. But I’m ok with that. Letting that stress go.
- Making a conscious effort to get a little more fitness in helps with the de-stressing too. Less worry and your body will tend to let a few extra pounds go. Truly! Stress causes us to carry a few extra pounds.
- Spending some time with family and friends instead of NetFlix is also a large destresser. As long as it’s the right people, ok, I can’t solve that one. But, maybe a little less time with the stressing people is that solution.
- Spend a little more time in bed. Sleeping and well, you know. Wink wink nudge nudge. All good things there. Just relaxing with a good book, listening to music, actually sleeping are all good for you.
If you look back on this list, each item has to do with how you spend your time. We all have the same amount of hours in the day and it is up to you how you use them. Work at being a little more organized with your time and soon it won’t be work and you will find that you get more done in the same time and you should start to feel less overwhelmed and more in charge of the things that are important. When that happens you will feel better.
Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one. – Hans Selye
