How Do You Treat Yourself When You’re Overwhelmed? | Stress & Self-Care

As I mentioned in a recent post, my life is going pretty well at the moment.

I’m filling my time with fulfilling work, blossoming friendships, and trying new things in order to replace my previous habits. Things are by no means perfect in my life, let me get that clear, but they are going pretty well.

However, as someone who is used to having a lot of me time I’m finding myself feeling more and more overwhelmed as the weeks go on.

I’m constantly flitting between a good stress and a bad stress – a mood where I’m spending my days in a fulfilling way and the mood where I feel like I’m not getting anywhere.

I talk a lot about self-care on this blog, but this month has made me realise that I’m actually not very good at it.

Being overwhelmed and busy requires some specific self-care techniques that I haven’t yet mastered.

SELF-SABOTAGE?

Surely I can’t be the only one who tends to overeat, stay up late, and rely on too much caffeine when they feel overwhelmed?

Even though I feel quite content and happy within myself, the outside factors of my life – such as an massive increase in work and social gatherings – have put a bit of stress on me. With this in mind, I know that I really should be taking extra care of myself to ensure that I can be a productive person in all aspects of my busier routine.

Yet even though I know this, I don’t act on it.

I make myself poorly by consuming too much sugar and caffeine; I find myself staying up too late looking at blue-light screens, and I rarely leave the house even when I need to.

Why is it when we need to be on top of our game we fall into self-sabotaging behaviours?

Maybe it’s a fear-response – a way for me to fight against the fact that I’m needed and I’m more in demand. Perhaps it’s just my lizard/animal brain that simply doesn’t want to work and instead would rather stay safe in bed that is making me feel this way.

Whatever it is, I know it needs to stop.

As a Sunday night reminder to myself and anyone else reading this – take care of yourself. And when I say take care, I mean it literally.

I mean take care of yourself by eating proper food, that has nutritional value and requires at least one small pan to produce. I mean drink water throughout the day and make sure you always have a bottle on hand to keep yourself hydrated. I mean make sure that you get yourself outside and/or away from screens even for half an hour everyday.

This is basic stuff, but I don’t think I’m the only one who struggles with it.

In order to make progress and changes in my life, I need to be in good shape. I need to feel awake and alert; positive and motivated to get through literally anything the week throws at me.

Let’s make a pact together to take better care of ourselves this week – no matter what’s going on in your life.

Speak soon,

Rachael.

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash