Five Ways to Reduce and Overcome Stress by Dani Cohen Show Up Management

Recite the alphabet backwards. Now, run a mile as fast as you can, stop, and recite the alphabet backwards again.

It was probably easier the first time, right?

But take a moment and imagine if every single day, you tried go about your life with the feeling you got right after you ran; heart pounding, totally out of breath, mind racing, possibly even disoriented.

Realistically, most of us are going through our day with that heart-pounding, disoriented feeling. What causes that feeling? Stress.

Culturally, we wear stress like a badge of honor. How many times do you heard coworkers say “I’m sooo stressed” or “I do my best work when I’m stressed?” Societally, we’ve been taught to correlate stress with hard work, work competency and overall performance. Stress means you’re succeeding, right?

WRONG. If you are constantly stressed out, it’s virtually impossible to operate at maximum capacity.

So how do you reduce and overcome stress?

BE AWARE

It sounds simple enough, but the more aware you are of your stress level, the better ability you have to control how you react. One simple way to address your stress is to ask yourself the following questions when you are feeling overwhelmed:

Is this situation in my control? If the answer is yes, then what are the next steps to address the situation? (hint: a list helps here!) Is this situation out of my control? If the answer is yes – the stress is self-inflicted and unnecessary. Focus on letting it go and putting your energy into areas of your life you do have control over.

SCHEDULE, SCHEDULE, SCHEDULE

The easiest way to overcome stress is to properly schedule out your day. Everything needs to go in your calendar – meetings, calls, appointments, time to work on projects, time to send emails, etc. Most importantly, your schedule and daily routine needs to include some time working on yourself. Set aside 20-30 minutes every single day where you evaluate the successes and struggles of your day. Some helpful questions:

How was my mood/energy?

Did I move today?

What did I eat today? How did those choices make me feel?

What have my thoughts been about? Have the majority of my thoughts & feelings been positive or negative?

Taking the time to proactively check in with yourself allows you to identify the major sources of stress in your life, and start to figure out how to change those situations or simply respond better.

ASK FOR HELP

Whether that is therapy, an assistant, a nanny – it is better to ask for help than suffer alone. Doing more isn’t always better, so if you can find ways to distribute tasks to other people, that’s a great place to start. Successful people know how to build effective, well-run teams, so learn to ask for what you need!

PRIORITIZE TASKS

It might feel like every single thing you need to do has to be done RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND… but that simply is not the case. In order to combat the stress of feeling overwhelmed by tasks, take a breath and make a list. Figure out what your urgent priorities are for the week, day, or month, and start working on those. Watching tasks get physically checked off a list can be extremely rewarding, and help you actually see the progress you’re making.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

You’ve likely heard this from every self-help book there is, but you are more susceptible to stress and anxiety when you’re fatigued, run-down, and overworked. Taking care of yourself can have a multitude of definitions, and looks different for everyone. Here at Show Up Fitness, we’re big advocates of using exercise and movement to mitigate your stress. For me, there’s no amount of stress a 20 minute jog can’t relieve!

For more tips on leading a balanced and healthy life, follow us on Instagram: @showupfitness, @showupfitnessintership, @danicoco1