Release Stress and Enjoy Health

Are you a taskmaster? A person that has a long list of to-do items and high expectations on accomplishing them? Feeling stressed and frustrated because repeatedly fall short of your expectations? Do you feel that you are in a hamster wheel and just don’t know how to offboard?

One of my clients was describing the hamster wheel she sees herself in – a never-ending ride of meeting deadlines, unfinished projects, and mountains of paperwork, in addition to meeting the relationship commitments. I was reminded of my conversations with my medical community about stress being the by-product of cancer. In general, the disease is the derivative of the dis-ease with life. My own oncologist left her practice because, after 16 years of treating cancer patients, she decided for ease and flow instead of the stressful life her medical practice gave her. Her departing words of wisdom to me were “keep stress out of your life, as much as you can!” I have found that managing my energy is a priority as I work to cultivate ease, joy, and flow in my life. Wanting to meet my expectations of a highly accomplished day includes listening to my body, doing practices that help, and staying vigilant with avoiding getting into the hamster wheel. Staying intentional with my actions, being mindful throughout the day, and creating a peaceful environment around me help avoid onboarding the hamster wheel. The practices I share here have allowed me to find more balance and recalibrate my energy throughout the day.

At the start of each day, project, or task, imagine what you expect it to look like in the end. Take time to set the intention on what you see as the result. You are intentionally organizing the energy for the accomplishment of what you want to achieve. As you move in the construction of the thing you are working on, continue to visualize the result. If you hit blocks, recalibrate your vision to the result and see if they are still aligned. Sometimes, you tend to go in circles because you are not setting a clear vision of what you want. That is wasted energy that delays your progress. Even though these sound like work practices, some can be integrated into other areas in your life.

Instead of listing your tasks daily and moving what is not done to the next day. Sprinkle your tasks deliberately on your calendar to set a flow and order for your week. Form a rhythm with your same, or alike weekly or daily, schedule them for the same day of the week, or the same time of the day. Such as on Tuesdays I do X, and Thursdays I do Y. Set a pattern for continuous tasks like, checking email at the beginning of the day, before and after lunch, and before I end my day, instead of continually being distracted by the task.

Discover when you are the most productive; some people are more creative in the morning, others in the afternoon, or evening time. Block that time for the projects that require extra focus. Stay within the structure of those times to ensure you progress with your projects, avoid distractions by setting your phone on Do Not Disturb, and or closing your door so the time is uninterrupted. Feel free to experiment and ask yourself, when am I the most productive? Designing your day to take advantage of your productivity zone will help you conduct your energy flow more efficiently. Finding your sweet spot may take time, we are all different so what works for some, may not work for you.

Preset your Me-Time on your agenda by scheduling your lunchtime, breaks, and go-home time ahead of everything else. Then stay within the confines of your schedule. There will be days when you have exceptions, but Me-Time is the vehicle that helps you restore and recharge, without it you are sending signals to the Universe that you are not a priority. Meeting the demands of your day will only happen when you stand firm on honoring yourself. The energy that you will attract is order and flow; others will converge into that energy. Me-Time is non-negotiable, remain bound to its guard rails; after all, the end result you seek by this calendar practice is to release stress and enjoy health.

Set a calendar reminder to ‘Go Home” for at least one-half hour before your expected quitting time. It will give you a chance to complete what you are working on, clean your area, and allow time to look forward to tomorrow’s calendar. Use this time to move and re-arrange items on your calendar if required, the unexpected ‘emergencies’ of the day may call for you to re-adjust the flow of the rest of your week. Checking on tomorrow’s agenda prepares you mentally; it finalizes your day by looking forward to tomorrow.

When you are on go, go, go mode, your body will tell you, “Stop! Feed me, Rest, Give me five minutes.” Yes, it will talk to you by your inability to focus or concentrate, or the feel of dragging energy. In those moments – listen to your body. It just needs a few minutes to recalibrate. Go for a walk around the block, take a moment to smell the flowers, take a bio break, touch nature in some way, make a quick ‘love you’ phone call, stretch your body, sit in silence, pray, listen to a song or a joke (or two), find a rhythm with your breath (breathe in from your nose, exhale from your mouth several times), do a 3–5-minute meditation. There are Apps that simplify these practices. Do whatever will shift your brain from right brain activity to left-brain activity. This will feel like hitting a reset button. After a few (at least 5) minutes you will feel refreshed and ready to let your creative energy flow again.

Your Me-time is non-negotiable so do step away from the work area to eat your meals or breaks. The change in scenery will reenergize you. Eating away from your desk also allows for better digestion and a relationship with your body. Again, a reminder that you are a priority, and the goal is to release stress and enjoy health.

Take a mental note on how it went daily, to learn more about you. If you tend to drag at certain times in the day, or while in a certain task, experiment next week as you are scheduling next week’s calendar. Scheduling your calendar for the week takes about 20 minutes but it will save you countless time in the end. Stay aware of trends, like every time around 2:00 pm your energy is low, then evaluate your eating habits that affect your sugar levels or whether you are taking sufficient breaks. Or if meeting with a certain person, makes you feel drained, then evaluate how you are transacting with that person to preserve your energy. Or if you notice that when working on XYZ, you tend to go in circles, then re-calibrate your vision on keeping the end result for that project in mind. Paying attention will alert you to situations, allow you to pivot, practice avenues to effect change, and realign to the ease and flow you seek, more of the time.

Concentrating on how to do things more efficiently is only one piece. The most important is to engage in more fun, joy, and love in your life. I know this is easier said than done at times. Committing to more doses of raised vibration with joy, fun, love, and peace throughout the day will allow you to release stress energy. The release is required, or else it will build. Don’t wait until a diagnosis is presented, make it a priority to have more fun, joy, and love. Reconnect with what you find fun and brings you joy and love. Do you love music, dance, connecting with others, the theater, sports, hobbies? Bring those in your work area. Having reminders of how you actualize joy and engaging with it throughout the day recalibrates our energy. Even if you engage in it via imagination (you imagine doing what you love), your subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined. Leave work at work and have strict boundaries. While in these Covid times, with some of us working from home, there is a tendency to work longer hours. Stay committed to yourself and your health. Engage an accountability partner to keep you honest. Ask them to check with you weekly and ask how you are doing with your commitment to yourself. Invite others to partner with you with these practices so you can remain committed, accountable and celebrate each other as you release stress and enjoy health.

Maintain an organized and uncluttered work area, clean spaces help generate ideas and flow. Bring nature into your space with a living plant or fresh flowers. Aromatherapy is a natural way of re-energizing you and sound helps reset your nervous system. Be mindful of your space before you leave it, so when you arrive the next day, it is ready for the start of your new day.