How To Detox Your Feelings

 

Feeling overwhelmed? It’s time for a detox!

Overwhelm starts in your mind. Stress and anxiety can be very isolating and it’s a sensitive subject to discuss — even with your closest friends and family members. It makes it easy to think that you are alone in dealing with these issues. It feels like you are somehow weaker or you’re falling behind.

A recent study found that 92% of working moms and 89% of stay-at-home moms felt overwhelmed by work, home and parenting responsibilities.

Statistics tell us that these types of issues are very common. Our beliefs that others are doing better than us and that we are falling behind or we’re failing can shape our inner voices into our own worse enemies.

Say nice things to yourself. Most of us say things to ourselves when we’re feeling down that we would never dream of telling another person whom we know is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. So, why do we feel like we can talk to ourselves like this?

Know that you are not alone. If you can’t say positive things to yourself, at least commit to not saying negative things or talking down to yourself. Remember when your Mom told you — “if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything”? This applies to your own inner voice as well.

Make the bed. Making the bed first thing in the morning should be the cornerstone of your self-help routine. If you make the bed first thing in the morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. it will give you a small sense of pride and accomplishment at the start or your day and it helps you to get motivated to do other tasks. It can give you a small sense of order that can set off a chain of events and help you be more productive. When you get to the end of the day and you look back, you can see all the things that you were able to accomplish. Little habits like this make a huge difference over time.

Say no. This may come as a shocker but, you’ve been lied to your entire life. The magic word is not “please”. The magic word is “no”. It is perfectly ok, when you’re stressed out and overwhelmed, to say no to things in order to take things off your plate.

In many cases, when you say “no” to one thing, you’re saying “yes” to something else. Say “yes” to the things that are really going to move the needle forward for you and “no” to the things that you don’t have the time and the energy for.

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough” Josh Billings

The ability to say “no” is very underrated and a very healthy habit that we all need to develop more.

Done is better than perfect. The trick is to get the things done that you need to get done. Keep focused on moving forward so that you can keep building the momentum that’s going to accomplish what you need to accomplish and be less stressed out and overwhelmed at the end of the day.

Write down your “big three”. When life gets overwhelming, there are two natural responses; I’m either completely paralyzed and stuck or I’m running around like crazy and not really accomplishing anything. I find that, in these moments, what works for me is to make a “big three” list. This is the list where I identify “what are the three things that are essential for me to have accomplished by the end of the day?” Until I have accomplished those 3 things, I don’t even think about doing anything else. If I have extra time, I can try and get some more things done or I can take a break and relax.

Limit distractions. I love Netflix and You Tube. I usually watch them while I’m doing other things at home. But it definitely makes me less efficient. I sometimes want to pause and take a seat back or rewind and see something again. When you’re overwhelmed, you should limit distractions like this because our brains are not wired for heavy duty multitasking and when you’re overwhelmed, the extra noise can sometimes be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It’s advisable that, when you’re overwhelmed, take off your phone’s notifications and leave it in a drawer, don’t have the TV running in the background and really allow yourself to focus on the task that you need to complete. When you’re able to focus more fully, you’re going to get a lot more done.

Take care of future you. This can be an effective technique to save time and energy in the future with minimal effort in the now. Plan ahead. If you have a slow work week this week but know that you have a busy week next week, maybe you can take care of some of those tasks now so that you don’t go crazy the following week.

If you’re making meals, make a little extra or a double batch so that you have leftovers for the busy times. Meal planning also makes meals and grocery shopping easier going forward. We are not trying to work harder, we’re trying to work smarter.

Ask for help. This is especially hard for me to do. Sometimes we are literally drowning in anxiety and we are still not willing to ask for help. I know I have friends and family that are constantly offering their help and I still don’t ask. But I’m learning (and I know they are reading this). The choice to ask can sometimes be a life saving choice. Don’t forget, you can also hire help when you need it.

I hope some of these ideas help you stay “cool as a cucumber” no matter what life throws at you.