Juggling work, family, and personal wellbeing can make life feel overwhelmingly fast-paced. We run from work to errands, to meetings to trying to maintain a good social life that we often do not do consciously. It is hard for it not to feel like a balancing act. From friends, to family, to work – sometimes to other work commitments, to trying to keep in shape and eat healthy. Where does one even begin? The whole process can be overwhelming to say the least.
Let’s take a look at some things that can help you manage a stressful schedule.
Self-care
There is no coincidence this is at the top of the list. Self-care is probably the most basic and most important thing one should invest in. The appropriate self-care will give you back some energy and balance you enough to go into further tasks you have lined up.
I meet a lot of people who claim to not have enough time for this.
You cannot go through your days running from one errand to the next and generally pouring from an empty cup. I assure you that these will result in some kind of other problem or illness – chronic or otherwise.
With this it is also important to mention that we need more than one method of self-care that we can rely on. Having different routines that can help us be present, navigate emotions and regulate them are important. We need shorter ones that can give us a boost during our busy days. Such as 10 or 15 minute meditations or journaling. We also need other rituals that can take longer for example a 45minute to an hour painting session or work out.
Not overloading our days
While sometimes this is inevitable, making space for important things such as self-care, adequate commuting time and overall daily balance of activities can give us a better sense of control. This will make routine less overwhelming overall.
Keeping with our routine
This one is especially challenging to people who have children. Since the roles of parents and guardians do not stop at any given moment. That said, the more consistency we engage in (both with family members and with ourselves), the easier it will become in time to be more in control of hectic schedules and endless demands. We want to acknowledge that, yes there are times when we need to push through and do more than is ideal. These stressful periods, if done with the right self-support can pay off in the future. To give one example, the first few years of having children can be particularly stressful and inevitably so. Taking time to engage in self-care practices – both for yourself and with your partner, will give you more energy day-to-day. It will also help you invest more into your relationship which is often also a crucial source of support. This will also ensure that you and your partner are on the same boat when it comes to parenting techniques and can also ease communication. As children grow older, some day to day stress will alleviate itself since they would have integrated some of the parenting basics you would have wished for them to integrate.
Boundaries
This goes hand in hand with all of the points previously mentioned. Having healthy boundaries – with self and others. Having a certain amount of discipline for all of this; can make a world of difference when it comes to burnout and other complications in our lives.
Jessica Saliba Thorne is a Gestalt psychotherapist. She has experience within the mental health field and sees adults with mental health difficulties, relationship issues and trauma at Willingness.
If you think that you can benefit from professional support on this issue you can reach out here.