Settle in. Let's Chat Like Friends...
January was hard, y'all. And long. So long, right? I heard someone recently say January should not be allowed to be 31 days long. Truer words have never been spoken.
January is often a reset month for me personally and professionally. And by 'reset' I mean, I do as little as possible as often as possible.
Why do I continually find myself anxious, stressed, and worried about the details of the future?
I mean, I'm still over here reading Jesus Calling every single morning AND I stack my Create Hope Cuffs on my wrist like inspirational armor!
How could I possible be stressed? 🤪
As the calendar has rolled over to February today, this wisdom truly impacted me.
"May I learn to see my symptoms of stress not as proof of pathology but as portals into presence. May I bless my soul’s great refusal to live at an inhuman pace."
And that quote reminded me of LAST January when my business coach dropped an incredible resource into my hands. Details below.
I was SO liberated, and even empowered to lasso that stress like it ran away with my morning coffee AND my dog!
But somehow in the chaos of 2021, I forgot how to lasso. Correction: I forgot I even had a lasso.
Stress can be all encompassing, put us into a freakishly vivid daily stupor and make us think this is just normal life.
Maybe you're like me and often equate life's stress with my ineptitude as a strong, independent woman in the 21st century (Please tell me I'm not alone here.)
Like I said over on our Facebook page, what if our souls are simply refusing to live at a rat-race pace & are crying out for us to slow down, focus on the present & stop denying our struggles exist?
More plainly, what if stress is NOT an enemy, but an indicator to slow down & refuel our souls?
I learned (and promptly forgot for the better part of a year) for myself that stress is cyclical. I often will go, go, go & suppress, suppress, suppress until I just can't anymore.
We like to mask it as 'pushing through', cause that's what strong women do, right? #nope
Ignoring stress never made stress go away. #boo
Turns out stress is part of a cycle and we can learn to see the early stress symptoms as indicators to intentionally slow down and find rest once again.
What a relief, huh?
So here's that fabulous resource my business coach gifted me last year. And it's only $10 on amazon right now.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
And I'll just let the cat outta the bag.... the secret to unlocking the stress cycle is NOT self-care!
While you may not be at the 'burnout' stage, the book is phenomenal for learning stress is indeed a symptom and can be lasso'd into working for us rather than against us. Even Brene Brown raves 'This book is a gift. I've been practicing their strategies and it's a total game-changer."
If you need the cliff notes, the Nagoski's Ted Talk is the resource for you.
And back to that nugget of wisdom we started with, the quote & original photo belong to author K.J. Ramsey If you're on socials, consider following her page where she beautifully pours out so much grace & wisdom regarding grief, suffering, and wholeness.
Thanks for letting me chat. But a monologue isn't really a chat is it?
I'd love to hear your thoughts & know your experiences with this topic. Do you have a go-to stress reliever? Or do you read an entire life-changing book and promptly forget it existed 2 months later?
xoxo
Danielle
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