Too Stressed to Get Out of Bed?

Do you ever lie in bed and just not want to get out? Your mind starts thinking of everything you need to do, you get completely overwhelmed, and the pressure just seems so great that all you want to do is go back to sleep and hide?

Well, guess what? That still happens to me--in fact, it happened to me this morning.

But the difference between the old Margie and the new Margie is that before, everything seemed hopeless. Today, I know exactly what to do about it.

What's my secret? Well, part of it is understanding why exactly I'm stressed out. Once I know that, I can take specific action to addres those things. I'm a big believer in getting to the root and digging it out.

So today's strategy is:

1. Restore my sanctuary. My house is currently a disaster. I have been focussed on other things and have really let it get out of hand. I can get overwhelmed thinking about cleaning the entire house, so instead, I focus on my one-room sanctuary (see my book for more information about this). My sanctuary is my dining room. It's my favorite room in the house. It has the most beautiful view, the colors are soothing, and it has the least amount of furniture and gathers the least amount of clutter. It has gotten messy, though. There are cobwebs in the chandelier, the floor has not been mopped in awhile, and the furniture is dusty. If I focus just on THAT room, and not on everything, I will create a place of peace. In that room, my troubles can melt away. Yes, I will definitely restore my sanctuary today.

2. Take time for my daily target praxis. I love love love Simpleology as a tool for organizing my day. It is a simple, strategic, and effective way to dump everything I feel I need to do out of my brain, sift through it to find out what's really important, and target only those items that will further my goals. So instead of being overwhelmed by 100 things I need to do, at the end of the process I only have a handful. Yes, my target praxis makes a tangible difference in my stress level.

3. Reign my brain. One of the reasons we get so stressed out is our brains kick in and start thinking about all we have to do (in my case) or what all is going on in the world, our families, etc. It is our active imagination that creates the stress hormones that course through our bodies and create the feeling. The feeling then causes us to continue to think about these things, which in turn makes us feel bad, which in turn makes us think about what's stressing us out--it's a viscious cycle. The only way to counteract this is to consciously reign in my thoughts and focus them on good, happy, positive things--like how good I'll feel in my sanctuary, or how grateful I am for my home, my kids, etc., or what it feels like to be happy and stress-free. When I do that, I create new emotions, new chemicals, and a new cycle--one that works in my favor. Join me on Tuesday at 9pm for my weekly Talkcast. I'll be discussing how stress affects us physically and exactly this biochemical reaction.

So, that's it for me. I'm off to take care of this oppressive feeling I have this morning. Why? Because my choice is that stress is NOT an acceptable part of my life.

What's yours?