How to Make Yourself A Priority (when you are feeling stressed and burned out)

Are your own needs being neglected because you are too busy running around taking care of everyone else’s wants and needs?

A podcast called OnTheRightTrackPodcas t, recently interviewed me about the warning signs of burnout and stress, as well as how to better care for yourself to prevent burnout.Where I also shared three easy steps for making yourself a priority today. You can listen to it here.

However, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my own experience with burnout .This is how I lived ten years ago.

Before entering the health and wellness industry, I worked in the fashion industry for nearly two decades. I burned the candle at both ends working long hours, travelling a lot, and raising two small children, all while over-exercising and eating my emotions as comfort. It was a recipe for emotional eating disorder.

When I didn’t take care of myself, I ended up with adrenal burn-out, which claimed six months from my life. For the time being, I’ll refer to it as my previous life because I feel so well cared for now.

The Warning Signs of Burnout.

My work as a health and wellness coach has shown me that women’s mental health suffers greatly when they are stressed or overworked. When it comes to dealing with stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, women tend to be more affected than men.

There are serious physical, emotional, and even spiritual consequences to ignoring one’s own needs to meet the needs of others all of the time.

Here are some signs to watch out for:

You feel anxious very often
Your mood goes up and down
You feel emotional and cry at a drop of a hat
You have energy drops a couple of times a day
You can’t seem to get enthusiastic or excited about anything

Disclaimer: The above symptoms may also be a sign of depression, so please be aware of this. Any or all of the above symptoms should prompt you to seek out professional assistance.

The Barriers to Self-care.

In theory, self-care is an easy concept to grasp, but in practise, especially for working women, overcoming obstacles to self-careis difficult. Self-care is often the first thing to go when life gets hectic (it’s all too easy to write yourself off completely).

Women tend to put self-care at the bottom of their priority list.

The reality is that most of us have been conditioned to take better care of others than we do ourselves. When your life gets busy, it’s all too easy to cross yourself off your priority list entirely.

But making time and space for ourselves — and getting over the emotional guilt — is critical to our well-being and happiness, especially NOW!

Here are Some Truths About Self-care.

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s necessary!

1. If you are responsible for the well-being of others, taking time away from those duties can feel selfish. But the truth is, the more we make time to take care of ourselves, the more fulfilled we feel and the more fulfilled you feel, the more you have to offer to those who need you.
2. Self-care is different for everyone — we are unique. So, what feels good for me in terms of self-care might be the opposite of what’s right for you.
3. Self-care is not just doing things in order to tick them off your to do list, or to brag about them on social media. True self-care is about what nourishes us and sustains us — even when no one is watching. |

Here are your three simple tips to making self-care part of your day.

Tip #1-Identify Your Needs.

Discover when, where, why and how you may be feeling deprived.

First, it’s important to figure out where you feel deprived in your life. From there you have a good idea on how best to approach your self-care.

For example, you could ask yourself these key questions:

“Where do I feel deprived?
What do I need more of right now?
What do I need less of?
What do I want right now?
What am I yearning for?
Who or what is causing me to feel resentful and why?
What am I starving for?

Tip #2- Set Healthy Boundaries

Do you often find yourself saying yes when you’d like to say no?

Here are some tips for setting healthy boundaries:

Don’t say yes to things you don’t want to do.
Yes, it can be tough to say “no” to others, or to limit yourself from doing everything, even if you know it might be better for you in the long run.
Rather than automatically saying “yes” to new responsibilities, consider changing your default response to, “Let me think about it” or “I’ll get back to you” to buy yourself some time to consider the impact of the decision.

Tip #3-Schedule Your “Me Time”.

Decide what kind of activities refresh and rejuvenate you
How often you need to do them to feel fresh and focused
NOW Schedule them in your calendar and treat them as important as you treat your work appointments – non-negotiable!

Block out times in your calendar —Remember you are your most important engagement

And lastly taking care of yourself is not negotiable and in fact is necessary so you can show up in the world feeling your best and have enough in your cup to give to others too.

When you nurture your body and spirit you replenish your cup – as result energy, enthusiasm and motivation increases.

What does this mean to you?

Taking a break from your daily grind and doing things for you helps you refocus and taking regular breaks are the epitome of self-care.

Now I would love to hear from you…

What are your self-care strategies?

Here are the links if you would like to listen to OnTheRightTrackPodcast.

Listen on Spotify : https://lnkd.in/gDnu2MAb

Have you tried every diet you can think of and lost confidence in yourself that you can be successful?

If you’re ready to finally lose weight and feel more confident. Book a good-fit coaching session with me to see if we can work together.