Stress Reduction Fail
Have you ever had a bright idea that you thought would change everything for you? Maybe you even got off to a good start and saw some initial results. However, in the end, it was not sustainable or rather, you were not able to keep it up and it ended up on the trash heap of bright ideas that didn’t stick.
A little while ago I had such a bright idea for managing my stress levels. I think it’s important to write about our successes as well as our failures so wanted to share this with you. I had noticed that on days when I was stressed out, I could seemingly go hours without taking a deep breath or appreciating the good things I had in life. So I tried setting calendar reminders every 2 hours to prompt me to walk around for a few minutes or if that was not practical, at a bare minimum to take some deep breaths.
This lasted a little less than a week before I scrapped the idea. So what happened and why do I think this failed?
It felt like another commitment. Sure, it was a good commitment to myself, but it felt like it added to my burden instead of relieving it.
It felt like another task. There was no joy or sense of reward in it, before during or after.
It felt clumsy. It just didn’t work well with the flow of my life.
Don’t get me wrong, I think there may be something in here that works, but this particular incarnation didn’t.
If you have a process or technique that seems to work for you, I would love to hear about it. Just let me know in the comments.