We all have stressful times. If you don’t, you aren’t human. My husband has been experiencing some severe health issues and landed in the hospital for six days recently. He is much better now, and things are getting back to more normal. I can begin to work on some of my decluttering projects again and that makes me happy.
As I was going through these stressful times, I begin to think of ways I employed to keep my sanity. I came up with three ways to keep your sanity when chaos enters your life. Whether it be a sickness, a husband in a hospital, a move to a new residence, an injury, or whatever else comes in that disrupts your everyday routine, we all need ideas for keeping it together. Stressors can exhaust you, and you need a plan to keep sane, simple and serene.
These are my three things:
- DON’T FORGET SELF CARE:
Don’t forget self-care. You can’t help anyone if you are worn and frazzled. Things like connecting to God through prayer and reading His Word, exercise, eating healthy, breathing deeply, and doing things that pamper yourself can go a long way in keeping your head above water.
2. KEEP DAILY ROUTINES:
Keep up your daily habits and routines as much as you can. If you let things go like doing the dishes, keeping horizontal surfaces clear, laundry, and making your bed, you will add to your stress level and overload yourself emotionally and mentally. When you are already overwhelmed you don’t want to let your environment overwhelm you even more.
It was harder to focus with so much stress last week, but taking the time to tidy up and do my regular chores was key to feeling serene when I got back home from my visits to the hospital. Seeing my counters clear, floors clear and things put away in there places made such a big difference.
3. ELIMINATE THINGS YOU CAN:
Drop as much from your schedule as you can so that you will have more energy for what’s really important, like being there for your loved one that is in distress. Realize your body is under greater stress and you can’t try to do all that you normally do. People will understand when you have to cancel or postpone things like classes and activities you normally do.
STAY TUNED!
This is just an intro to a four part series which I hope will help you keep from unraveling during stressful times! I will be featuring more detail in the weeks to come.