Imagine how you’d feel if you could take every Friday off, or have one week a month dedicated to vacation and relaxation time? Most of us would be a heck of a lot less burnt out and stressed if that were the case.
Alas, such a schedule is not likely for most of us, and so how can we live our lives without feeling a constant sense of urgency, busyness and overwhelm?
What about taking little mini-breaks in our days so that we don’t get to the boiling point. Small injections of calm that allow our bodies to decompress just a little and therefore recover during the day, not just later each night or on the weekend.
Breathe
Yes, you’ve heard this one before but taking 30 seconds to simply breath deeply has shown dramatic benefits. Not only is there a reduction in fatigue and perceived stress but an increased overall sense of calm. It’s simple.
Try this - Simply sit comfortably - inhale for a count of 3 - hold for a count of 4 - exhale for a count of 5 and repeat 3 times.
Airplane mode
Constant distractions are just plain exhausting. The multitasking we are expected to do with all of our modern gadgets has been shown to actually reduce our productivity and increase our sense of stress and dissatisfaction with our lives.
Try this - simply put your phone on airplane mode for 30 minutes and then pay attention to how nice it feels to not have any technological distractions. This is incredibly simple but for some it is not very easy. If you don’t think you can go 30 minutes, start with 10 minutes and see how it goes. Once you start to feel the sense of peace that comes with the quiet, you’ll be willing to do this more often.
Stay hydrated
This may sound like a strange way to reduce your stress levels, but it is honestly one of the easiest and the most effective ones. No one feels good if they are not hydrated. Our brains, our muscles, our hearts, our skin etc all need adequate water to function properly. As soon as you start to get dehydrated you start to feel edgy and tired, and overtime this leads to an inability to cope.
Try this - Work towards drinking 2L of WATER (not coffee, tea, juice, smoothies) daily. Once you start to see how much better you feel it will become second nature to drink this much.
Get your butt moving
Again, this is not new and you all know how good exercise is for you but most people connect exercise with sweating and discomfort. Not so! Did you know that even 5 minutes of walking every hour over the course of 6 hours was actually shown to be more beneficial than walking 30 minutes straight when it came to anxiety reduction and blood sugar level balancing.
Try this - get up and move for 5 minutes every hour. Easy peasy!
Get connected - in person
Even before the pandemic there was ample research to prove that loneliness was bad for our health, in particular our hearts and our overall resilience. Now that we are finally able to see our friends and family without as many restrictions, embrace it.
Try this - make a date to see a friend you’ve not seen for awhile. Plan to actually see each other in person and enjoy the energy of just being together. You will be blown away at how amazing this will make you feel.
And if you’re into TedTalks here is one that talks about BurnOut that you might be interested in as it takes a different look at how to address burnout.
https://www.ted.com/talks/emily_nagoski_and_amelia_nagoski_the_cure_for_burnout_hint_it_isn_t_self_care?language=en