Hi there! If you keep up with my newsletters, you know why I’ve gone MIA. If not, I’ll explain now why I’m slowing down, what my game plan is over the next few weeks, share my first guest post with you and, share how these things are helping me cope with my wedding planning stress.
But first, why am I going MIA?
Life has been happening in full force, and my plan wasn’t working. I just had too much going on, and unfortunately, I’m not at the place where I can quit my day job yet, so I had to hit pause on a few things. As of right now, those things include my newsletter, blog, Facebook group participation, and my part-time job.
You see, I’m getting married September 29, 2018 (woot-woot!). I thought I’d be able to keep up with everything going on since I have a wedding planner but I just can’t. I’m not superwoman, and I realized it’s time to ask for help and retake control of my schedule by setting firmer boundaries.
Related article: These Simple Stress Tools Can Help You Show Up For Yourself
If you’re a bride to be and you’re pulling your hair out with wedding planning, work-life balance, family time, and personal time, then girl let me tell you how great it is to be back in control of my life.
How I’m reducing my stress and coping better with it
Once I had the realization that I’m in control of how stressed I make myself feel during the wedding planning process I was able to step back from it and see the things I was doing that weren’t necessary right now.
Related service: Wedding Day Transformation
They were things I felt I “had” to do. Like my newsletter. I don’t have to write it every week. Yes, that may be my goal, so my people (like you) know what’s going on but I’m the one who determines its frequency.
Same thing for my blog posts. I set the tone for how often I write, what I write and if I even write. Me! I’d rather submit one quality post a month than 4 crappy/so-so posts that don’t do you any good. Wouldn’t you rather have it that way?
I thought so too 😉
Helping my clients manage their stress is one of the most important things I do, but I have to do it for myself first.
So I decided that until our wedding is over (9/29!!!), I’m going to be sending out bi-weekly updates instead of weekly. After the wedding, I’ll do my damnedest to get back into the swing of weekly 😉
I also thought I was going to be able to keep up with updating older content, ha! I’m doing my best to write another guest post right now. As for my content on the blog, I’m not sure how often I’ll write, maybe every 2-3 weeks.
I hope you understand.
I’m not saying goodbye forever, I’m merely living my life right now. I don’t intend to do this thing called a wedding more than once, and I’d like to step back and enjoy the journey while I can.
Plus, I’ve been practicing what I preach when it comes to movement, eating choices and water. However, since I came back from my bachelorette party shit’s been hitting the fan – big time. I was so stressed out I found myself stress eating at work and having crazy cravings before bed. I knew something had to give. As I was standing at my counter eating a spoonful of peanut butter and dipping it into the bag of mini dark chocolate chips it dawned on me:
The brain can’t differentiate between real and imagined stress.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said this and here I am falling victim to the stress response!! It’s amazing how we can fall off track without realizing it. I was inevitably winning the game I was playing – feeling trapped with no options, no end in sight, that everything had to keep going how it has been even with our wedding planning in full swing.
It wasn’t working so I hit the breaks!!!!
Take that imagined stress!
Related article: How to Make Time for the Most Important Things in Your Life
Here are 5 ways you can cope better with your wedding planning stress, starting NOW:
- Look at your calendar for the next 7 days. What’s one activity you’ve committed to that you can cancel?
- Look at your to-do list. What’s one item you can delegate to someone else in the next 24 hours?
- Consider your schedule today. Where can you fit in 20 minutes for yourself —where you’re not taking care of anyone else or being “productive”—so you can just relax and play and do something mindless?
- Look at your calendar for tomorrow. Where can you fit in a 10-minute walk or Frisbee toss in your backyard? The fresh air and movement will help you cope waaay better with stress.
- Before your next meal, try what I call the “5-5-7” breath. Inhale for a count of 5, hold your breath for a count of 5, then exhale for a count of 7. Repeat at least 3 times. This breathing gives your body a chance to relax before your meal, which will increase your digestive capacity and help your body pull more nutrients from the food you’re eating.
My first guest post happened!!!
Today, I’m going to share the guest post I wrote a couple weeks ago called How to keep the end goal in sight. As I wrote it, it occurred to me I was falling subject to making my plan but not working my plan. I was setting too many goals that sounded wonderful in theory, but once I’d sit down to work on one, I realized there were so many little things I had to do to make that one thing happen.
It was sooooo overwhelming!!
The blog I wrote this for is called Chasing Your Passion. She created her “blog to help people build the life that they dream of, not just hope for. Together, we will work on achieving our goals and planning for our future. It’ll take a lot of work and staying focused but it will all be worth it once we get there. My main focus is helping people go after their goals, live the life they dream about and become financially independent.”
I wrote this article because after viewing her current articles, it looked like her viewers liked reading/learning new ways to make their goals stick. To make them actually happen. Just like you. What immediately came to mind was anchors. I’m not talking about the ones you fish with. I’m talking about the anchors I’ve mentioned before that help you achieve your goals.
Related article: Find Your Anchor to Create Your Success
It’s one thing to set a goal, it’s another to pursue it actively. I’ve found that doesn’t happen unless we’re always reminded of a specific feeling or sense we get from an anchoring object. That can be anything like a check wrote out to one’s self like Jim Carrey did or posting an ‘I am statement’ or wearing a particular perfume.
What do you do now?
If you’re ready to set some empowering outcomes and goals but need help digging deep, then click here now to schedule a time to talk with me about the important steps to take to make changes in your lifestyle that will help you CREATE your DREAM life!
If you feel too stressed to relax, and you KNOW it’s affecting your health, your weight and your energy levels, then click here to schedule a powerful coaching experience with me to discover how you can reduce or cope better with the stress in your life,.
I’ve helped tons of clients solve this problem, and the chances are excellent that I can help you, too.
To your health!
