The short and sweet answer: Self-Care
Like many individuals, you may be rolling your eyes now, saying you have no time for self-care because stress always takes the front seat! For many, even considering this topic probes a feeling of weakness or personal disappointment. I hope to remove this feeling and guide you to manage stress by intentionally take care of yourself.
It seems that everything I am reading now, in this economy and society we live in, speaks of the need to take better care of ourselves. There are many reasons for this, many equally as unique as each of us. We play many roles in our unique lives, demanding various attitudes, mindsets, skills, actions, behaviors, and outcomes.
Many of us shift gears at the drop of a dime, responsible for coming up with the right plan of action at the moment and bearing the consequences of the results in real time. Furthermore, all of this happens in the personal, professional, and organizational context.
Wow, that is a lot when we think about it.
Yet, we get up every day and do it again. This affects our being (who we uniquely are) as well as our well-being Without general self-awareness and applying it we can get overwhelmed, stressed out, and burnt out. Unfortunately, many of us do. This is too bad and, I believe, oftentimes unnecessary.
Gain insight into Your Stressors and Priorities First
The following information is aimed to support you to develop a better relationship with yourself and set priorities in order to reduce stress. Setting boundaries is key. And don't forget one of my favorite sayings: If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
The idea of self-care can in itself be overwhelming. Where do I even begin? There is too much to unpack! Once I unpack this mess, now what do I do with it? Although it might be nerve-wracking to start, self-awareness is key to successful self-care. So, buckle up!
The trick is to break big concepts into smaller bites that you can work with.
I prefer to identify general concepts and dig deeper into the overarching categories and themes to develop context and action. Knowledge without action is meaningless. To me, self-care is no different.
To better unpack these ideas, we must understand the requirement of adaptability. The ability to reflect, become self-aware, emotionally connect, become willing to change, unlearn to move forward, learn new, act, harvest intended benefits, and feel good about it. These core JRCI (Jeff Rogers Coach Inc.) principles will help you to remove stress.
The image above helps us identify and think of the more significant ideas and concepts to harness our efforts. There is more to this, but this is a great start for our efforts here:
- Where do you currently feel balanced in these general concepts?
- Think about it, where are you out of balance?
- How does that affect your daily quality of life?
- Where does your stress develop, and why?
Here self-care begins for you.
Use your energy on the right things
To better wrap our brains around this idea, we first must agree that we all have only so much energy to invest in what we do each day. This is all about that energy, and where to apply it for your best results. To me, self-care is all about energy management and replenishment. Better understand that idea, and we can move forward.
There are four universally accepted forms of energy. At our human disposal, we manage Physical, Spiritual, Emotional, and Cognitive energy. At any given moment in our daily activity, we demand from our ‘Ness” various levels of these energies. The fifth energy level is Etheric energy; we will not engage this level here. Some demand is planned, but another demand is not, most of us find ourselves in a more reactive state than we would appreciate. This is a Big deal: This is a choice you make! Remember, priority is your friend, you cannot apply finite energy to infinite energy drain sources. We caring humans often try to do this. We think this shows we care. Instead, it is self-depleting and adds great stress to our lives.
4 Types of Energy to Manage for Reducing Stress
Here is my second big idea. You cannot drain all your energies, show up in a truly weakened state, and believe you can effectively deploy your influence, decision-making, and leadership skills. Yet many of us do this daily because we care.
Get this; caring is not wearing yourself out to meet the needs of others. Caring is, deploying the necessary energies and resources at your disposal to serve those whom you care about with effective results.
You must then prioritize for maximum effectiveness; delegate and build teams that can get things done right. It's better to build and nurture than do it all yourself and get burnt out.
Replenishing your energy is an intentional and often overlooked process. When ignored, the stress piles up. What do you intentionally do every day to forecast what energies you will need in the planned part of your day? Probably not much... but what if you did?
These energies comprise what I often refer to as our “Ness.” ("Ness" is what it means to be YOU.) For each of us, these energies naturally occur at different levels for different people. That is why in a twenty-four hours a day, some accomplish so much. How do others fall so very short of their potential, ability, and goals? I maintain that they have no sense of priority, discipline, and understanding of this breakdown:
Physical Energy is like it sounds. Energy your body requires for daily physical function. Better nutrition, lots of water, stretching, regular exercise, good rest, and even better sleep all contribute to your best physical energy supply. What we put into our physical vessel is what we get out of it! We all have work to do here. Do it!
Spiritual Energy is supporting our ability to connect with energies beyond ourselves. This may be supported by prayer, meditation, visiting sacred spaces, or simple time alone in nature. Whatever this means to you is what matters. How do you intentionally replenish this energy, your belief system? How do you get recharged?
Cognitive Energy is our intellectual energy. Have you ever geared up for that heavy number-crunching day or the significant spreadsheet development exercise? After an elongated time using our brains, we often get headaches. This is our body on cognitive overload. How do you feed this requirement to your brain? Are you aware of scientifically proven supplements supporting your healthy brain function? Your brain requires these nutrients to function at a high level.
Emotional Energy is where many of us struggle. As humans, we often are dragged into the trap of cognitive challenge, and deploy emotional responses, resulting in significant energy depletion. We often are unaware we are even doing this at the moment.
The idea here is that with appropriate priority development and understanding, we can prepare our energy levels with discipline to serve our needs better. This is a big idea that few use to their advantage. What will you do right now to better your energies to serve you at a higher level?
Reduce Stress and Care for Your-Self
How you care for yourself will better indicate how you can do what you want. That simple.
How you intentionally replenish your various energy requirements is entirely up to you. Should you ignore your needs, you get what you get, unfortunately. This would be sad and unnecessarily falling short of your true potential.
Managing your energies proactively would be a great first step for your self-care routine to reduce stress. Establishing boundaries, learning to say “No simply,” and establishing priorities will serve you well.
To give your best, you must be at your best. In my many years, I have not yet learned how to cheat this energy thing. There is no workaround. The older I get, the more I embrace this concept and wish I understood it with more clarity in my youth. I would like to know where I would be today if I had!
No time like the present to begin your journey toward the self-care and stress management.
Get on it, and you will be better at everything you do. How to deal with stress at work might be easier than you think, and those around you will appreciate your self-awareness as well!
