How to Manage Stress as a Working Mom
Do you ever get stressed and then feel stressed about being stressed?? 🤣
You know you're "supposed to" keep stress levels low.
High stress impacts your health in all kinds of ways.
So, stressing about how stressed you are is not helping.
You know this, but it's so hard to stop!
I get it. I'm right there with you.
The topic of stress comes up all the time with clients.
We're all very aware of how stress negatively impacts us.
It makes sense that reducing stress is one of the top things that I see women wanting to change.
Myself included!
I've personally watched close family members navigate some really scary health issues that happened after a really stressful season in their lives.
It was a front row seat to seeing the correlation between stress and health.
So you better believe that when life starts feeling too stressful, I start to panic. 😬
I notice every little ache, pain, or abnormality and tell myself it must be because of stress.
So then, not only am I stressed and getting more stressed as I think about what that's doing to me.
I'm also layering on guilt, frustration, and shame because it's "my fault"! "I'm not doing enough to "manage" my stress!!!"
If you can relate, I want to share something that I read this week. It was a major ah-ha, lightbulb moment for me. 💡
It resonated so much, that I made a note of it, put it in my planner, and now I'm writing it here in this email to you.
Here it is:
"My stress response is an asset - it helps me rise to the challenge.
I can recover quickly from stress - my body was built to do it."
Read that again.
How does that feel?
It's an excerpt from this book and the concept is simple:
Stress itself is not a "bad" thing. It's actually a good thing that keeps us safe and allows us to do hard things.
But like many things in life, moderation is key.
We can have a stressful event, a stressful day, or even a week and that's ok as long as we recover. As long as we allow our bodies and our nervous systems to reset.
So when a client comes to me and wants to reduce the stress in her life, what we actually end up doing is finding activities, practices, and routines that allow her to recover from stress.
Because stress will always be there.
We're working parents! It's part of what we signed up for.
But if you can remember that stress is an asset, and our bodies were built to recover from it.
And then know what practices work for you to help you recover from stress and how and when you fit those into your schedule.
You'll feel so much better.
If you want support creating your stress recovery plan, including when and how you'll do these things, I can help.
Whether it's through private coaching, my group program, or a 90-minute planning intensive, stress recovery is a topic worth prioritizing because your health matters.
Click here to apply to work with me. I'll help you figure out which program would be the best fit for you and then we'll start mapping out the details of your unique stress recovery plan.
And in the meantime, put that quote somewhere you'll see it and be reminded that you can recover from stress. You were designed to do that…
Take the first step to managing your stress…
by downloading the Working Moms Ultimate Guide to Getting It Done. Inside I teach you my tried and true process for organizing work and life tasks so you can be more efficient and less overwhelmed.