This may sound extremely contradictory, but when you find yourself crazed, anxious, stressed, and just a tad (okay, maybe insanely) overwhelmed, one of the best things you can do for yourself is slow down.
Unfortunately, I'm not always the best at following this advice myself.
And sometimes, I'm pretty horrible at it.
Take this week for instance. I knew I had commitments each day and night and needed to prioritize the time I had and what work needed to be done by what days. Working from home has truly been a blessing in so many ways, but sometimes there are days that start to test your limits.
Full Disclosure: I don't like saying no and have a little problem with the need to overachieve. My want for Gold Stars is something I continuously work on. So when the middle of the week rolled around and I realized just how much I still needed to get done, I got a little anxious.
(Okay, maybe a lot.)
Sometimes, thinking about everything we need to accomplish can be overwhelming. We don't know where to start. It's paralyzing. Taking this one step further, working from home means I set my own priorities with work. While I have loose guidelines for my freelancing and marketing work, for the most part I set my own schedule. If I take an afternoon off to see a show with my mom and sister (We saw Pippin, and it was great.), the work isn't getting done by anyone else.
..Cue the anxiety.
So when I start to feel frazzled, not knowing where to start, feeling like I have a million and a half things to do, I've found that one of the best things I can do is just to slow down.
Take a breath, light my lavender candle, make myself some tea, and chill out. Sounds super zen-y, I know, but it works. I'll get it all done. Nothing productive is going to happen while I'm freaking out.
My "stop freaking out, just relax, you will be fine" nook of my room. I'd highly suggest having a space like this!
So how can you slow down?
Maybe it's going for a walk. Maybe it's a quick yoga or meditation break. Maybe it's calling a friend. Maybe it's praying. Maybe it's writing it all out in a blog post (guilty). Instead of getting yourself all flustered, switch gears. Slow down long enough to get your bearings, get rid of your stress, and then pick it up full speed again after! Your mind (and the quality of your work/life/happiness) will thank you!
This post was originally published on Quarter For Your Crisis, an online community created to share stories of those who don't think normalcy is an option and who want to actually live and breathe their passions.