Stress Relief Tips for Overcommitted Women

(If you are a male, you may wish to pass along this newsletter to a female who can benefit. Or you may glean information to help yourself or someone close to you.)

Are you over stressed, over tired and over whelmed? Have you become a walking zombie, burdened by too many responsibilities? Do you feel guilty if you can’t do it all? Or do you feel trapped, depressed, with no way out?

Your experience of stress can cause you to suffer headaches, neck pains, poor digestion or anxiety. Why focus on stress? Because stress is the main underlying culprit for symptoms of the Hurried Woman; fatigue, moodiness, inability to lose weight, low sex drive, and loss of enjoyment of life. While stress in itself is a normal part of life, over stress can cause mental and physical problems. Doing too much (over commitment) is a major contributor to over stress.

Looking for Natural Stress Remedies?

In a separate notebook or journal, list all your commitments: job responsibilities at work, family roles, aging or ailing parents, home responsibilities, community or religious service work, responsibilities for your pets. Was your name on the list? For your own sake, you had better add it!

When you review your list, how do you feel - accomplished, energized and challenged? Or do you feel overwhelmed, tired, and wonder how you manage to do it all?

The dilemma is––what commitment/s do you drop? This is not about abandoning your responsibilities. It’s about remembering your responsibility to yourself. It’s recognizing and honoring your limits so you can be the best you can be to your family, your work, your community and to yourself.

Three Steps to Combat Over Commitment
1. Outline your priorities. 2. Ask for help. 3. Turn off your ove
urturer button.

1. Outline Your Priorities from the list of Commitments list. i.e. family, job, friends, home. You’ll want to keep most of these! Even priorities can be pared down or some parts delegated. From your list of Commitments that are left, pick one thing you can you drop right now, or in the near future.

2. Ask for Help! Which tasks can you delegate all or part of the job? Consider the following; get someone to pick up the kids instead of your always doing it; get the family to help with cleaning up at home. Or hire a cleaning lady. The money you spend will be well worth it. It’s time to take a break.
3. Turn off Your Ove
urturer (ON) Button. Over nurturers are a terrific lot. You are good to your friends, family and community. You bake, or fix things for people, run errands for neighbors, and are a Brownie Pack Leader. Many of you may look after ailing parents, teach Sunday school, do the laundry, drive the kids to music lessons and pick up the cleaning on the way home from work. You put dinner on the table. Hand this person a broom! Remember that the more you show you can do, the more others demand of you. The cost to your physical and mental health? – Enormous! Practice saying NO!

Do something for yourself this next week - something you enjoy. Set aside at least 15 minutes a day to relax or unwind. Go for a walk. Start treating yourself as well as you would treat others. Notice when you are rushing. Just breathe deeply and slow down.

All Aboard Hurried Woman to a better destination – from Surviving to Thriving!n============================================n