How to Take Care of Yourself During Busy Seasons
Fall festivals, sports, after-school activities, holiday parties, family gatherings…the list of obligations feels never-ending during the last few months of the year. While there’s not always much you can do in terms of making your schedule lighter, there are things you can do to make sure you’re making yourself a priority during the busy seasons. By acknowledging that you will get overwhelmed, coming up with a plan, and scheduling time for yourself, you can go into this time of year feeling ready to tackle all the things that come your way.
While these tips are helpful, you may still be left feeling stressed when things are busy in your life. Feeling unable to manage stress is completely normal, but something you don’t have to suffer through alone. If you are having a hard time managing your stressors and coming up with good coping skills, consider mental health counseling. They will be able to help you find what coping skills work best for you and how you can implement them without causing added stress.
Identify Your Signs of Stress:
Let's be real, during periods in our lives that are busy, we will all at some point feel anxious, stressed out, and overwhelmed. It's normal to feel this way and says nothing about your ability to manage the hard or busy seasons of your life. Instead of ignoring it and hoping for the best, let's acknowledge that we're going to struggle along the way and come up with a plan for when it happens.
First, take a minute to reflect on ways stress manifests itself in your life so you'll be able to identify them. It can be difficult to have the self-awareness to recognize when we aren't coping well, so it's good to recognize what it looks like for you. Some common indicators can be: angering easily, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, muscle tension, and falling behind on self-care tasks.
Think of all the ways stress shows up for you and make a list. Compiling a list to put in the notes app on your phone may be helpful so that you can check in with yourself a couple of times a week. You also can add more items to the list as you notice them. If you have a partner or someone close to you in your life that you trust to hold you accountable, share the list with them so they can let you know when they observe you exhibiting signs that you’re stressed.
Plan for feelings of anxiety, stress, and overwhelm:
Now that you've identified signs that you're overwhelmed, let's look at how to cope with it. There are many ways we can manage feelings of anxiety, and what's effective is different for everyone. If you haven't learned the best ways to navigate your own anxiety, use trial and error to see what works. Using a combination of mental, physical, and emotional coping mechanisms is best to ensure you are releasing stress throughout your body. Here are a couple of suggestions for each:
Mental: Meditating, Box Breathing, Thought Challenging
Emotional: Journaling, talking to a friend, allowing yourself time to sit with uncomfortable emotions
Physical: Going for walks, dancing it out, adjusting your diet
If you’re not used to finding coping strategies for yourself, you might have to try many different things to see what works well. Pay attention to how each of these activities makes you feel and start implementing the ones that work well.
There may be other factors unique to your circumstances that make stressors harder to manage. Things like grief, PTSD, and depression can cause more barriers and make it feel difficult to navigate everyday problems. If you can relate, reach out to therapist specializing in grief and PTSD counseling or depression counseling and they can help!
Schedule Your Self-Care Needs:
When we are so busy with fall and winter events, sports seasons, and fully-booked weekends, it's easy to let the simple things that are good for us fall to the wayside. This is where it's valuable to set boundaries and make your own needs a priority. One way you can do this is by scheduling anything that is important for you to maintain your mental and physical health. Some things to consider penciling in:
Set an alarm to go to bed: When we are so busy throughout our day and downtime, one of the first things we tend to do is stay up later to compensate for the time we "lost" during the day. This is generally not effective, though, and will likely make you feel worse. Try setting an alarm reminding you to go to bed.
Plan one home-cooked meal per week: Take out and fast food are the go-to on busy days because there is just no time to plan and prepare a good dinner, but sometimes that leaves us not feeling our best physically. If having meals at home is a priority for you, plan out what days you can realistically prepare dinner, and then get as much done ahead of time as you can. You might even consider a home delivery meal service to eliminate the prep work for yourself.
Schedule relaxing activities for yourself: During these busy times of the year, we often take away our hobbies or relaxing activities to make room for everything else. Don't do that! You are worth the relaxation and you'll feel so much better if you make space for yourself, even when things are chaotic. Find a couple of hours each week to do what you love. Things like reading a book, getting a manicure, going out for a drink, or spending time outside can significantly reduce your stress.
If you’re struggling with adjusting to stress and busy times in your life, we’re here to help! Mental health counseling can help you learn to manage stress and come up with a plan catered to your needs. We serve Georgia, Florida and Pennsylvania virtually, with office locations in Buford, Ga and Peachtree City, Ga. Book a consult with us today!
If you want to hear more about taking care of yourself and managing your stress, check out these Nurture & Be podcast episodes!
