6 Tips To Bounce Back From Overwhelm

6 Tips To Bounce Back From Overwhelm
by Lisa Peake, M.A.

Get Up Girl and productivity pro, Lisa Peake of Peake Productivity, shares with us about how to support ourselves when we're experiencing overwhelm.

I work with a lot of busy women. Each one is doing her best to be a good daughter, friend, wife, sister, mother, and brings a high level of care and investment to her work. The good news is that studies show that wearing these varied roles benefits us: when one area of life becomes challenging, we resource self-esteem and encouragement from other sources. We are more robust because we care about and participate in many different areas.

But what happens when all of these areas demand a lot of your time and focus, leaving little left over for you?

That’s when I remind my clients (and myself) that we women must give to ourselves first before we can give of the overflow. If you’re feeling depleted or overwhelmed, here are 6 tips to restore yourself to productivity relaxed focus:

1. Appreciate yourself and your partner.
Start with yourself, and start simple. Write down 3-5 things you appreciate about yourself at the end of the day. Make sure to include qualities about yourself as well as accomplishments. Then turn to your spouse, best friend, or business partner and share the love. A major source of emotional nourishment comes from feeling appreciated, and you’re the best person to start this trend in your own life. I have all of my clients appreciate themselves at the end of each week as part of their Weekly Review.

2. Take a sabbath day.
It was Rachel Naomi Remen who inspired me to block out a day of rest on my calendar every week. Commit to it! Usually a weekend works best for most people. For the entire day: no chores, no errands, keep cooking simple and nourishing, or ask a loved one to take over. Hire a babysitter if needed. Make it a day to play, pray, rest, nap, primp, gab, meditate, and receive support from the ones you love. Resting in this way allows your mind time to incubate creative ideas. All of the brilliant artists, writers and musicians take time away from their creations to percolate. Take time away from whatever it is that you produce, and recharge.

3. Know when to quit.
When you’re tired, sleepy or “braindead”, your most productive next action is rest. This may sound elementary, but in fact it takes conscious awareness to know when to stop (work, play, chores, etc.) Practice checking in with yourself to find out when you need to stop what you’re doing, or take a break. This can also mean know when to quit dwelling on negative thoughts. By redirecting yourself to something more nurturing or uplifting, you have an opportunity to recreate your day.

4. Don’t confuse sneaky indulgences with true self-nurturing.
A pint of Hagen Daas is probably not true self-nurturing, especially if it leaves you feeling guilty. Recognize those times when you want to “slip up” - that is, any time a convenient justification pops in like, “I deserve this because...” Take that as a sign that you need more true self-nurturing. True self-nurturing creates space for greater awareness, false nurturing pushes aside unpleasant thoughts or emotions. The productive choice is to honor what’s present now, and be kind to yourself as you go through it. There is no going around it, anyway. “The best way out is always through.” -Robert Frost

5. Forgive the day.
Forgive yourself, the people in your day, the situations in your life. Forgive it all. This way, when your head hits the pillow, you go free. You can do this in a simple way by saying, “I forgive myself for judging anyone or anything I judged today.” Do what is necessary to bring yourself into peace, and your night time rest will be more rejuvenating.

6. Set a bedtime intention to get deep rejuvenating rest.
Write in your journal what kind of sleep you want to receive, or just say your intention inwardly. You can include an intention to have meaningful dreams, and to wake up feeling refreshed. This is a simple one to try out and test the results for yourself. It takes less than 30 seconds per day. We all need to make time for ourselves in a conscious caring way. When we don’t, we find ourselves depleted and wondering what happened. It takes some effort to stay rested in a busy world, but if you make these tools and others an important part of your daily and weekly routine, you may find that you bounce back from those occasional moments of overwhelm a lot faster.

To find out more about Lisa's work and how she supports her clients with greater productivity, go to: peakeproductivity.com

Simplify, and Savor Life

by, Leo Babauta at Zen Habits

Photo by: Margalit Ward

These days we have an abundance of luxuries, but I've found that excess actually decreases my enjoyment of life.

Sure, we can get massive amounts of rich foods, feasting to our heart’s content, stuffing ourselves in alarming displays of gluttony … but is that really enjoyable on a regular basis?

And yes, television can be fun, and so can ridiculously large parts of the Internet, but if it’s always on, if we’re always connected, doesn’t that lower the fun factor?

Excesses lead to all kinds of problems, but the biggest problem is that life is less enjoyable.

I’ve been finding that simplifying things means I can savor life more fully.

Savoring life starts with a mindset. It’s a mindset that believes that excess, that rushing, that busy-ness, that distractedness, isn’t ideal. It’s a mindset that tries instead to:

• simplify
• do & consume less
• slow down
• be mindful & present
• savor things fully

It’s the little things that make life enjoyable: a walk with a loved one, a delicious book, a chilled plum, a newly blooming tree.

And by simplifying, we can savor life to the fullest.

Some ideas I’ve been considering lately:

1. Coffee: Instead of ordering a latte, mocha, cappuccino with whipped cream and cinnamon and shavings … simplify. Just get pure, good coffee (or espresso), brewed fresh with care and precision, with quality beans, freshly roasted. Make it yourself if you can. Drink it slowly, with little or nothing added, and enjoy it thoroughly.

2. Tea: I recently had tea with Jesse Jacobs, the owner of Samovar Tea Lounge, and he poured two different teas from tiny tea pots: Nishi Sencha 1st Flush and Bai Hao Oolong tea. It was fresh, hand-made tea from real leaves, not a tea bag, and it was simply delicious. Drink it slowly, with your eyes closed, fully appreciating the aroma … wonderful.

3. Workouts: I’ve been a fan of simpler workouts recently. While others might spend an hour to 90 minutes in the gym, going through a series of 10 different exercises, I just do 1-3 functional exercises, but with intensity. So I might do some sprint intervals, or a few rounds of pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats. Or 400 meters of walking lunges. Let me tell you, that’s a simple but incredible workout. Another I like: five rounds 85-lb. squat thrusters (10 reps) alternated with pushups (10 reps). Today’s workout was three rounds of 15 burpees and 800-meter runs. No rest unless you need it. These are great workouts, but very simple, and very tough. I love them.

4. Sweets: I used to be a sugar addict. Now I still enjoy an occasional dessert, but in tiny portions, eaten very slowly. What I enjoy even more, though, is cold fruit. A chilled peach, some blueberries, a few strawberries, a plum: eat it one bite at a time, close your eyes with each bite, and enjoy to the fullest. So good.

5. Meals: While the trend these days is super-sized meals of greasy, fried things (more than two people need to eat actually), I have been enjoying smaller meals of simplicity. Just a few ingredients, fresh, whole, unprocessed, without chemicals or sauces. My meals usually include: a breakfast of steel-cut oats (cooked) with cinnamon, almonds, and berries; a lunch of yogurt, nuts, and fruit; a dinner of beans or tofu with quinoa and steamed veggies (or sauteed with garlic and olive oil). These simple meals are better because not only are they healthy, each ingredient can be tasted, its flavor fully enjoyed.

6. Reading: While the Internet is chock full of things to read, I’ve been enjoying the simplicity of a paper book, borrowed from the library or a friend (borrowing/sharing reduces natural resources consumed). When I read online, I read a single article at a time, using either the Readability or Clippable bookmarklet to remove distrations, and in full-screen mode in the Chrome browser (hit Cmd-Shift-F on the Mac version or F11 in Windows). It’s pure reading, no distractions, and lovely.

Read more about simplicity in Leo’s books, The Zen Habits Handbook for Life & The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. More here.

Feel Your Boobies Campaign

Ladies, are you feeling your boobies?

We all the know the importance of having an annual breast exam from our doctor, but research shows that it is also important to be examining ourselves on a regular basis for the prevention and early detection of breast cancer.

We recently discovered the campaign, Feel Your Boobies®, founded by breast cancer survivor Leigh Hurst. Her story is an example of a young woman who was feeling her boobies on a regular basis, and because of that found a lump long before her doctors. What started out as a fun and creative way to remind her friends about something that had saved her life, evolved into a non-profit Foundation to spread this important message. Read more about Leigh’s story and the history behind the campaign.


Leigh's Story

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on April 7, 2004. I was 33, I ran marathons, ate well, and thankfully I felt my boobies! I wouldn’t necessarily say I did “self-breast exams” as they are traditionally defined, but I did feel my boobies during the course of my daily routine and because I did, I knew when something was different.

For the two years leading up to this diagnosis, I had noticed the small lump in my left breast. It didn’t hurt or change very much, but I noticed it. I was living in New York City at the time and when I would go to the doctors for normal checkups, I would wait for them to do their clinical exam of my breast to see if they would notice the lump on their own. They didn’t. It wasn’t until I held their hand and placed it on the lump that they noticed what I had felt on my own for some time. For whatever reason, none of them felt it was something to be concerned with so I trusted their judgment and figured it was fine.

At some point during this two year period of time, I tired of the city lifestyle I had led for the previous 10 years and made a major decision to move back to Middletown, PA -- the small town where I grew up just outside of Harrisburg, PA. I moved home a successful professional woman, but was single and 33, and with my childhood friends mostly being married I feared I had embarked on life as a spinster. Just six months after buying a home and moving to PA, it was time for my annual exam. It was at this exam where the nurse practitioner (forever my angel) suggested I go get a mammogram.

Read more…


Find out more about the Feel Your Boobies Campaign® at feelyourboobies.com

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Vitamin B12 shots

Fellow Get Up Girl Liane Schmidt, just published an informative article on the pros and cons of receiving B12 shots. It is an informative and interesting look at the subject. Vitamin B12 shots for weight loss, healthy skin, reducing stress, energy boosters, and so much more. I have just recently been introduced to B12 shots; shots that are apparently becoming more and more popular these days with actors, politicians and people on the go opting for them over lattes and cappuccinos. I myself have started to get a weekly shot. Yesterday was the third week for me so far. My doctor told me that they are great stress reducers, skin enhancers, energy boosters, as well as having many other beneficial health factors. They are quick and painless. I stress painless because I have an extremely strong aversion to pain and needles and was completely surprised at how I hardly felt a thing. Though I never thought I would spend $25 a pop on a single vitamin supplement, I have always believed that my health is worth every expense in the world. Click here to read entire article We love to share your writing, artwork, and creativity with our fellow Get Up Girls. Please send blog posts to: info@getupgirl.org Happy Creating! getupgirl.org