Knocking Down Stress, One Target at a Time
There are times when everything can feel overwhelming – bills, health stuff, that to-do list and relationships that need attention. It’s tempting, at times like this, to either panic or shut down completely. The truth is that it’s entirely natural to feel overwhelmed. Nobody can fix everything all at once. It’s not failure to admit it; it’s embracing reality. And while tackling everything just won’t work, what does work is treating them like targets at a fairground; line them up and knock them down, one at a time.
The multitasking myth
There is a kind of pressure when you’re an adult to be across everything all the time. To have your finances handled, be on top of your sleep, diet, job, personal life… the list goes on. It’s as though you should have everything in a spreadsheet where it’s all moving along like clockwork.
Stress doesn’t pay any attention to that imaginary version of you. It looks for any little crack, and one small thing can knock you off balance; then a few more arrive and all of a sudden it all feels impossible. The key is to stop trying to juggle everything at once. You’re not a computer. You have one processor. And it’s got enough to deal with without trying to devise a way to keep every plate spinning.
Priorities, not perfection
The first thing to do is write things down. All of them. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do them all in one go. List them as they come into your head: the financial worries; the health appointments you need to make; the texts you haven’t replied to. Get them out of your head and onto a page. Then pick one.
Just one – it could be making a GP appointment, or opening that envelope that landed on the mat and has had you worried ever since. It could be paying off a credit card bill. It doesn’t really matter which it is. Just pick one, do it, and then breathe. Your list just got shorter, and you have the dopamine burst of ticking something off. That makes it easier to tick off the next thing. The list just got shorter again. And one by one it all gets done. Maybe not immediately, but it’s being handled.
The money target
Money is a worry that tends to demand more of our attention, covering all the other stresses like a kind of background radiation. And it’s trickier to fix, because there are usually a lot of competing money worries, from paying off bills to securing more income. In this case, consolidating issues into one can be effective. Explore ways of knocking off a few bills whether through online payday loans or making efficiencies in your budget. This may create another priority, with repayments to make – but if it eliminates two or three in the meantime, it’s a net gain.
The key, as always, is to move forward; knock off targets and move on to the next, not thinking of them as some kind of stress mountain that has to be scaled, but a collection of manageable issues. When you turn life into a series of winnable challenges, it’s better for your mental and physical health, and you can enjoy little wins every day.
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