Recently, I saw a friend that I hadn’t seen in a while – she is very accomplished stylist and in constant demand for her services.  To get an appointment, you have to call a few weeks out. She is so successful that she represents her company in national trade shows and training programs.  Every quarter she receives the highest award for productivity and customer satisfaction.

You would never guess that while she has so much going on for her, inside she was feeling the exact opposite.  Inside she is feeling completely drained, pulled in many directions, goes home and hibernates because she can not even begin to think about more interacting.  Since I like making analogies for stress management tips and dance, it’s like her life was twirling out of balance.

What she said really went right to my heart –

You give 100% to everybody – to work, to family, to friends, to significant others…..at the end of the day you don’t even have you.  You have given you away.

How many times have we felt like we’ve given ourselves completely away?  At the end of the day…what is left?

Is Your Life Twirling Out of Balance?

The sign you’ll see when your life is too stressed out is that you do feel like you are twirling round and round with no way to stop.  Here’s a few more signs:

• Forgetful, hard time remembering normal things
• Feeling like your thoughts are fragmented
• Feeling depleted, run down
• Experiencing the thoughts of having nothing more to give

You’ve experienced these feelings enough and now its time to help you resolve them.  So what can you do to bring back the real you and feel like your twirling more like a dancer instead of twirling out of balance like a top about to topple over?  Try at least one of these a day for the next few days and you’ll begin to feel more balanced:

• Acknowledge these feelings for what they are – symptoms of stress or being out of balance.  When stress reaches a certain level in the body, you get physical symptoms.  When you can see the reactions as merely symptoms, that changes your whole perspective.
• Write down your symptoms, reactions.  Seeing them on paper allows you to “let go” of them to a degree.
• Express yourself – let others know around you that you are feeling these symptoms of stress and request their support.
• Gather your thoughts and take ACTION –  turn on music and dance, walk, jump rope, scream out loud, get your body into physical activity.  Even have a “quickie” with your significant other.
• Sleep!!!  Sleep deprivation is the number one cause of all the symptoms!
• Make a list of your “to-do’s” and then pick only one to-do….when it’s done, it’s now a “ta-da!” And celebrate!

Be sure to take some time for YOU!  Really, if you do give away yourself….you won’t even be able to take care of you.   If you would like some more resources and the opportunity to really take control of stress symptoms….you’ll want to dash to this exciting challenge from my colleagues at How To Live On Purpose.

To Your Balanced Twirling,