Last on the List

Planthemeal. Getthegroceries. Cookthemeal. Laundry. Housecleaning. Helpwithhomework. Gotowork. Lookafteragingparents. Medicalappointments. Drivethekidstoactivities. Getthegifts. Planthevacation. Coupletime. Visitwithfriends. Exercise. Timeforyourself...

Your life doesn’t feel like it’s your own. You willingly do what is necessary to look after the needs of your family, to the extent that you often neglect the one who keeps it all going - you!

When you do finally get some time to yourself, you may feel so tired that all you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. But, the sleep you so badly need is elusive and illusive.

Stress is a thief, silently robbing you of not only sleep, but also of who you are. Vivacious. Energetic. Calm. Creative. Out-going. Perhaps these words once characterized you?

How do you describe yourself now: Exhausted? Worn out or down? A nervous wreck? Unhappy? Angry? Unwell?

Stress is an inside job. Your perception of events causes a cascade of fourteen-hundred chemicals, designed to activate the stress response - flight or fight.

This is your body’s prehistoric programming. The one that allowed cave men and women to survive under life and death situations. Although it may seem like it, most of your everyday experiences are not truly a matter of life or death. But it doesn’t matter. The way in which you interpreted the events in your life has caused your internal pharmacy to do the job it was programmed to do so long ago.

Without techniques in place to deal with the less-than-ideal situations that occur in your life, you may find that it takes less and less to put you into a negative state. Which then elicits the stress response - including another dose of cortisol, “the stress hormone”, which stays in your body for up to thirteen hours. It’s cumulative, too. That explains why it takes you the first week or longer of your vacation to feel like you’ve finally unwound.

Stress transformation can take place on-the-go. In the car. At the game. In the kitchen. In as little as two minutes, stop that cascade of stress chemicals and replace it with positive thoughts and emotions.

Unveil the woman hidden beneath the piles of laundry, inside the bags of sports gear, or lost among the pages of the planning calendar.

With support from Auntie Stress, learn how to put yourself first on the list by activating the power of your heart. Once you learn the techniques and know how it feels to have a smooth heart rhythm, you won’t need a dressing room to undress your stress, or a private place or even extra time.

You’ll be able to balance the two branches of your nervous system - the key to stress transformation - anywhere, anytime, right when you need it most.

Remember that without you the list may not even happen. When you learn to put yourself first and take care of your inside, you’ll have a bigger influence on your outside.

3 Replies to “Last on the List”

  1. I had no idea there was an actual biochemical reason why it’s taken me the better part of a week to get ready to have some time off. Just in time to go back to work on Monday. I think I need to hire you. Right after I win the lottery. 😉

  2. What a great way of driving home the point that you cannot place self-care (or healthy ways of managing stress) as last on your list! Doing so will only make coping with your to-do’s overwhelming with no end in sight…

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