In today’s 24 hour society, life can be overwhelming. Having a full time job, taking care of family, running errands, doing chores, studying, commuting to work and back, can create a feeling that everything is becoming just too much to handle. This feeling, also commonly known as stress, is a defence mechanism by the body in challenging situations. Historically, stress has been very beneficial because it protected humans from dangerous situations and let them make quick judgement calls. Today though, stress, because it is not caused by isolated events but by a continuous situation caused by an overload of tasks, can lead to many problems, including anxiety, depression, heart disease and more. Additionally, while work in the past meant to work steady hours, many positions today demand to be available 24/7. Being reachable by phone and email is becoming a standard for many companies.
The good news is that there are ways to help you. Many people suggest to ‘avoid the stressful situations’. That is unfortunately not possible in most cases. When having a family, working full time and possible studying on the side to increase income, just stop doing something is simply not an option. What is essential though is to learn how to cope with all the tasks. That can be done by clearing your mind. By doing this, you basically ‘reboot’ your brain and it becomes easier to focus and tackle each day.
There are different approaches but the following is one of the quickest way to give your mind a moment of peace.
When you feel like you are drowning in work, it’s time to take your mind off all the tasks for a moment. You can do this by finding a quiet place, set an alarm for a few minutes in the future (so you don’t need to keep track of time), find a comfortable position and close your eyes. Now try to relax your body and mind and not think of anything. If you are having troubles at the beginning with that, try focusing on your breathing. Just listen to your breaths. Gradually, this will become easier. Do this until the alarm goes off. This can help greatly to calm you down and gives you more mental energy.
If you are thinking of perusing a higher education, there are also ways to ease your schedule. When studying online, you can decide when and where you want to study, without having to spend time commuting back and forth to the university. You can view more information about online degrees here.
