“You are worth the quiet moment, you are worth the deeper breath. You are worth the time it takes to slow down, be still, and rest. “~ Morgan Harper Nichols
I want to talk about being overwhelmed. I suspect that I'm not alone with this, especially given our current global situation.
Even before the pandemic broke out, I was on the verge of being overwhelmed. I live with two autoimmune diseases – rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia – both of which lead to health problems when I'm stressed.
I started the year completely stressed, thanks to a new health condition that straightened his head: Irregular tissue grew in my duodenum, which impaired my digestion. My first visit to a specialist to try to remove it in February found it to be far more extensive than expected and I had to be rescheduled for a far more complicated procedure.
Then COVID hit and I was put on hold a bit. To say I had problems is an understatement: we got isolated at home, my health was in danger, and while we believed the tissue wasn't cancerous yet, it was definitely the type of tissue that was trying to get cancerous become.
I found it difficult to do my usual chores, and I was decidedly tired and a little quick-tempered putting all of this added stress and uncertainty into an already difficult situation.
Not knowing what else to do, I resorted to some serious self-care practices. I'm not talking about face masks and bubble baths, even though I have increased the number of baths I have taken with Epsom salts as they relieved the pain that came with my increased stress levels.
I've spent much less time than usual on social media to avoid "doom scrolling": This is where you keep scrolling through social media to find the latest and most exciting information about disasters occurring. To my husband's dismay, this also meant that I stopped watching the nightly news with him. Instead, I read a book or saw something light and happy on my laptop.
I've made sure that I go outside every day as long as the weather allows so that nature can do its thing and make me feel better. I've set myself a goal of exercising at least five days a week for twenty minutes or more, and I've made sure to drink plenty of water and not skip meals.
I also returned to my meditation practice, which had expired as it had sometimes been in the past few months, and established a bedtime routine to get myself on the path to a successful sleep.
Here are my takeaways from that time.
If you need time, take it.
If you need to set boundaries with others in order to protect yourself, your emotions, your sanity, and / or your energies, it is okay to do so. You can't pour from an empty cup, so it's important to take care of yourself.
Give yourself permission to move away from the noise of the world.
In particular, you have permission:
Turn off the news or reduce your recording
Reduce your time on social media if this is stressing you out
Don't follow social media accounts that are too negative for you
Reduce your exposure to negative people in your life by setting boundaries
Give yourself time out when you need it
Take a day for mental health
Say no to things you don't want to do (even if you've already said yes).
It's 100 percent okay for you to take a break. It's okay if you need a break or a break. It's okay if you prioritize your self-sufficiency.
Prioritizing your mental health and self-sufficiency are two of the best things you can do for yourself and the people around you, as I learned again this spring. Many of us are shaken by things as they are now in the world and have to increase our physiological needs and strengthen our sense of security.
Although I am not a psychologist, I am familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is usually represented as a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid are basic human needs such as protection, sleep, food, water and exercise. The next level, which is also pretty big, is security, and it includes things like employment and health.
The pandemic rocked our worlds in a way that rocked this pyramid. It is difficult to work on higher level things like romance, dreams, plans, and spiritual matters when the foundation of our personal pyramids must be supported.
This is one of the reasons I returned to self-sufficiency. Exercise, hydration, diet, and sleep were on my list. These all come from the base level of the pyramid.
By turning down the noise of the outside world while staying informed in small snippets, I was able to stay connected with what was going on without turning into a stress ball.
If I was on a more even keel, I could move through this time without completely losing myself to stress and fear.
And what about the adenoma? I had surgery the day before my birthday and although it turned out to be a bigger procedure than expected, the biopsies came back clear. One less worry to keep going.
About Kelly Ramsdell
Kelly Ramsdell is the founder and CEO of Actually-I-Can Inc., a company dedicated to helping women fulfill their vision of life through self-care, creativity and adventure. She considers eliminating interference to be an important element of self-care as it reduces stress. In fact, I-Can opened a debugging course in September 2019.
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