Ever feel like you’re just really angry at everything? For no good reason?
That was me from Friday and especially from Sunday.
I had a great, solid, productive, fun week last week. But that also meant busy, social, and intense. I had some work bits on over the weekend and especially Sunday when I normally do a hard stop. This meant that my brain was on a lot and the cumulative work volume versus downtime was not in the least bit balanced.
The result?
Sunday became a full overwhelm zone. Followed by a Natural Cycles prompt on Tuesday of “you may experience PMS”. Well, no $#!√
If you’re with me on feeling overwhelmed, I want to share some strategies.
Talk to people. Nobody can help you if you don’t say you need help or accept any. You can tell them that you don’t need advice, just an ear to listen. You can ask for a hug. Whatever way, it needs to not just be in your head. The alternative is to write it down, for the exact same reason.
Take time out. Walk, read, listen to music, sleep. Your mind needs space to switch off and process the enormous amounts of data you’re sending.
Name what you feel. Understanding whether you’re tired, sad, angry, frustrated, or exhausted, is important. Each comes with its own nuanced feelings and different ways to deal with them.
Allow yourself to feel it without feeling shame or guilt. That’s a sign you’ve grown. I speak to so many people (females especially) who think that because they feel an emotion sometimes, that they used to feel regularly, they have somehow failed, not evolved, or gone backward.
This last one is important to me to talk about.
Just because you feel similar emotions sometimes, or have similar behaviours doesn’t mean you’re not making progress.
One big difference is that it happens sometimes, rather than all the time.
The others are that you are able to spot more of the details that cause it. Maybe not immediately, maybe not until we jump into a call or a text check-in. But you are able to see that today you felt angry or reached for comfort because you didn’t sleep well all week, because you’re stressed at work because the cumulative requests from colleagues have tipped too far out of your control or comfort zones.
You may realise that at this moment you’re just very tired and not feeling like yourself. Maybe that is hormone related. Not necessarily estrogen/progesterone hormone. But actually, your cortisol is all over the shop because you’ve not slept enough (you may have slept 7-9 hours, but it still could be too little relative to the mental and physical demands of life), or your work stressors are too high. Maybe you need to get out in more daylight to boost your serotonin levels and feel more positive.
You are also still a human being, not a superhero, or a robot. You are allowed to and should feel things. It’s good. We just need to take a second to process and understand why we feel certain things.
So this weekend, take a second to check in with yourself and see how you’re feeling, and why.
Through our nutrition and lifestyle coaching, we encourage everyone to take 5-10 minutes on Sunday to review the week and see what felt good and what needs work.
This is helpful for the coach to understand what’s going on. But mostly, it helps our members to build long term habits and understand more of the cues, habits and behaviours that work for them!
If you’re interested in the nutrition and lifestyle coaching – email [email protected]
