Health: Balancing Your Health Part VIII - Stress Management

Society has a lot of expectations! These expectations can cause a lot of stress due to worldly views. Are these expectations necessary? Do they line up with the Word? Are they something we should stress out over?

We can have positive stress such as having a new baby or getting married; but stress can also be negative such as financial, work, or plate being too full to manage everything.

Note: We feel it is important to emphasize that the plate being full is an effective way to stretch yourself and grow whether it is in one or multiple areas of your life.

The key is to finding the balance to manage and prioritize to allow yourself to stretch and grow without committing yourself to too much resulting in the creation of overwhelming stress.

We all struggle with this problem. My husband always says if it isn't going to make a difference 5 years from now then I'm not going to worry about it. It is true. We have to focus on what is really truly important in our day.

Make time for what you need to balance your mind, body, and spirit everyday. It's okay to say no if your plate is full. We have to manage and prioritize our life to fit our "Why" and our "Purpose". In our family, we look at God first, Family, then everything else and prioritize from there.

There are days we will have extra time to help out with an activity or extra project at work, but we need to remember what is important today because tomorrow is not promised. Spending an extra 2 hours at work to finish a project, but missing your son's track meet may not mean much to you if tomorrow doesn't come. It may have meant more to you to be at your son's track meet and finish those last 2 hours of work tomorrow.

Practice time management and plan ahead to avoid completing things at the last minute to avoid feeling torn between work, home, activities, and self-care.

You have to know what YOUR "Why" is! Why are you doing what you are doing? What are your goals? What are the goals of your family? How do these goals line up with your purpose and the path God has set for you? Are you reaching for your Why or are you getting stuck completing tasks that OTHERS require of you? With some things such as a job we may get stuck with completing tasks that need to be completed, but time management and working efficiently are key to managing and prioritizing time to relieve stress as much as possible.

DON'T TAKE STRESS HOME! DON'T TAKE STRESS TO WORK! DON'T TAKE STRESS OUT ON OTHERS! These are huge mistakes that are easy to make. Something happened - an argument, a disagreement, a fight, an unrealistic expectation, limited resources, etc. You know what is stressing you out - make a list of GOOD STRESS and BAD STRESS in your life. How are you coping with it? What is your plan and are you pursuing your dreams? Are you keeping God first and family in mind with decisions? Are you staying the path? What changes can be made to decrease or eliminate stress?

Beside each stressor (good or bad) describe your plan to overcome it. How can you cope with it? How can you lessen it or find a solution to eliminate it? How can you work smarter and more efficiently to decrease the amount of stress you have? How can you organize your day, your week, your month to work together with family members or work colleagues to better processes or the routine for the day?

Remember stress can be good and can be bad. Too much stress over time can create negative effects on our health. We need to find the balance and find ways to help lessen stress throughout the day!

What are some ways you have found to manage stress in your life???

Are you praying for guidance, vision, and your purpose if you are not already sure what that may be?