Tips to Recharge & Unwind Archives - Whispering Fields Wellness

Grace Over Grind: Plan Ahead to Relieve Stress & Improve Work-Life Harmony

Sharon McCall — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:30:27 +0000

You were so busy, that you didn't notice how stressed out you've gotten. Now you're barely able to get through the day because you are so exhausted, you want a stress reduction plan you can execute without thinking. Better yet, you start catching yourself before you get to this point.

This video is part of a series on how to build a stress recovery plan. Visit Grace Over Grind on Rumble or YouTube to see the rest.

Personalized coaching can take you deeper, but these tools provide you the foundation for a DIY approach to stress recovery. In the remaining episodes of the series I'll get into other aspects on how to use these tools more effectively and introduce a few more exercises.

Click for Transcript

(0:01 - 1:36)

Have you noticed that some days you're more sensitive to stressors than others? Something that wouldn't bother you one day, suddenly it stresses you out. Your sensitivity changes based on the reserves that you have and how resilient you are. I call this grit.

There's subtle changes that can signal that you may need to guard yourself more or to build up your reserves. Also, stressors are cumulative compared to your stress tolerance capacity. If you have a lot of small stressful things, minor irritations impacting you, it reduces your capability to handle more.

You're more vulnerable to being pushed over the edge. I'm sure you've had plenty of situations where you're handling everything thrown at you and carrying all of your burdens. There's just a lot going on and you're doing perfectly fine with it.

Then something happens or a situation pops up that you normally can deal with and it just sets you off. It's the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, that one more tiny burden that is just too much to bear. Your stress response ticks up that next level with that straw, that extra burden that fell on you, and you either come out fighting with unusual sharpness in your tone, impatience, or more easily angered, or you take off in flight to isolate physically or mentally or procrastinate, or freeze where you just give up, or you fawn by taking whatever that person brings just to make the situation end.

(1:37 - 2:27)

It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 10, 12-3. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No testing has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.

And God is faithful. He will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. But when you are tested, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it.

So today, let's go over some of the early warning signs that indicate that we are being tested to the limits of our endurance so they can be built into your stress management plan so that you have a way out and an ability to endure it before you come to your knees or start crawling on your belly and continue to carry your burdens. So let's start with prayer. Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friends to listen today.

(2:28 - 3:08)

Many of us are carrying heavy burdens of stress. We challenge and test ourselves to the limit and carry a lot of responsibility. Personal history has shown that we can take on a lot and withstand a lot more.

Yet as we believe that we are standing firm, we need to be careful that we do not fall. Relationship and health crises occur when we consistently go past our limits and keep trudging forward with our load, even if we have fallen to our knees or crawling on our bellies. And I'm sure some of you recognize those moments.

We keep pushing onwards on self-will alone without turning to you, God, for support and strength. We have limits and you don't. Help us recognize them.

(3:08 - 17:15)

In our willfulness, we need your help to avoid taking on too much. Help us see the way out so we can avoid being tested beyond what we can bear. Help us learn to lean on you for strength rather than try and do it all alone.

I pray all is well with every listener, healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit. As they reduce stress and improve work-life balance, may they know your will and your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In case if we haven't met before, I'm Cher McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. I'm a stress recovery coach, which means that I help people like you that are struggling with chronic stress, mainly from work, and help them to reduce their stress and to find greater work-life balance so that they're able to thrive and flourish as God intends. In today's episode of Grace Over Grind, we're going to end up covering three different topics and go through an exercise.

The first topic is common low-reserve situations so that you start recognizing when you don't necessarily have the energy and things can become more stressful than normal. Then we're going to get into early warning signs that's an indication of when you're taking on too much work or stress. Then we'll go into signs of breakdown, which means that you've gone past those early warning signs, you've continued to overwork, you've continued to stress, and it's starting to have the next level symptoms in your life.

This is before you get to a full-blown health crisis or relationship crisis. Then we're going to pull this all together and get into an exercise on preventing the crisis because when you recognize these signs you can make the necessary changes in your life so that you don't have that health crisis or relationship crisis. Hopefully you haven't experienced those yet, but if you are you understand what a learning experience those are and how it really motivates you to want to make significant changes in your life.

But for those of you that haven't, we really want you to avoid that learning experience. So our first topic today is to recognize common low reserve situations. Really it just means that you've got depleted energy and you really can't take on as much as you normally would.

So the most common situations are recognized by the acronym HALT, H-A-L-T, and that's hunger, anger, anxiousness, loneliness, and tired. So if you're feeling any of these four it means that if you have a stressful situation or encounter a stress trigger you're more likely to have a higher level stress response than you normally would. So things that wouldn't normally bother you can end up being a significant stress trigger.

So how well do you recognize these now? I take a look at myself when I was in some of my peak workaholic episodes. Because my schedule was quadruple booked at some points in time, always double and sometimes triple booked, I would defer breaks. It would be just absolutely non-stop.

There'd be times when I would end up needing to go take a bio break and I would hold it hold it hold it hold it hold it to the point that I didn't need to anymore. But by the time I actually went and did the bio break I could physically tell how unhealthy that had been because my body was starting to get dehydrated and to recycle things. If you've ever been to that point you can kind of tell because it's very different than a normal time when you go take a bio break to the bathroom.

So you may not be recognizing these very easily right now because once I trained my body to ignore these signs of hunger or needing to go take a bio break and go to the restroom it became much easier and easier to ignore them and then I wasn't getting these clues of when I needed to pause and take a break and take care of things. So as you take a look at your stress journal if you've been doing that exercise how well would you say that you've been pausing and taking care of yourself in these situations? Are you seeing in a lot of your notes and descriptions that you're hungry all the time or you're on edge and irritable? What are these patterns that you're seeing in there? So the classic one that a lot of people recognize is hangry. So since that Snickers Bar commercial a lot of people recognize it.

So when you're hungry and angry at the same time because you're in such a low blood sugar and just anything will set you off. You'll explode even if somebody just comes to talk to you and interrupts a focused activity. So think about how this is showing up in your life.

So have you been taking care of yourself or are you just kind of plowing through and just dealing with whatever the repercussions of that is? So as you think about these situations these are fully avoidable. If you get enough sleep, if you interact with enough people, if you're monitoring your mental and emotional cues, if you're feeding yourself, taking the right breaks, taking care of your body, you can pretty much avoid getting into those four states for a good part of the time. So what tiny habits can you set up to minimize the likelihood of halt being one of your co-triggers? We'll talk about it a little bit more in the next episode.

So do jot down a couple of things to make a list of. We're going to talk more about how do we maintain higher levels of reserves? How do we build our grit so that we can more positively respond to the stressors that occur in our life? Since work is a very stressful environment and we're not going to be able to avoid all of the challenges that come towards us. Moving along into early warning signs.

These are those signals that you get that you're working too much, you've got too much stress. Whatever the signal is that you're getting in your being that you're just doing too much. These could be physical, mental, spiritual, holy spirit yelling at you.

These can be unrelated to your stress reaction. They're the subtle signs that you need to take further action. They're often hard to detect and often overlooked.

These are those times when you're feeling not quite right, that you recognize, okay, I'm always stressed, but this is just that little bit more, or I work a lot, but this is just that extra bit where you feel that you're on that edge. You may even realize that this is how you felt just before you had an even harder time in the past. This was the lead up to some dramatic situation that ended up occurring because you were so depleted or so tapped out.

As you look at your life and what you've been learning through stress journaling, how can you tell when you're starting to dance close to the edge? I think about this is the different categories of consumption patterns, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, sensations, the same kind of things that we've talked about before. What changes do you see that tells you that you're kind of starting to hit that limit? So is it that you're starting to consume more alcohol, sleep aids? Are you grabbing more comfort food than normal? Maybe going to excessive levels compared to where you normally use them? Or in behavior, again, some of these things in my past that I've used to help me identify between sane and insane levels of work was emails at four in the morning or 11 p.m. at night, getting less than four hours of sleep, more than one time per week, chronic lateness because I could never get everything done to stay on time to the plan that I'd committed for. So you'll see these things in your behaviors as well.

Identifying when are you really pushing that edge of too much? When it comes to thoughts, these could be things where you notice, okay, my normal negativity bias, it's now becoming where I'm beating myself up. I'm going for the adrenalization where I beat myself up so much that I get like an adrenaline spike so I can keep going. It can show up as forgetfulness or such a heavy case of brain fog.

You just can't think clearly. For feelings, it could be uncaring, moodiness, irritability that's out of character for you. Maybe those are two earliest signs.

Maybe it's closer to arguments, outbursts. I don't know what your life is so it kind of depends on where you are on that spectrum and what those signs are for you that have meaning. In the category of sensations, these early warning signs could be the inability to experience pleasure, physical discomfort, pain.

So kind of go through these different categories and list out what signs you get that you're taking on too much work or feeling too much stress. As you list these out, it helps you to build greater self-awareness of them. And like I said, some of these you may not have a high sense of awareness of at this point in time.

So if you need to, compare them against what is it like when I'm not stressed or overworked? Do you remember that? Do you remember a time when you were on vacation and finally all of the physical discomfort and all of the stress and the thoughts of work melted away and you were just having a grand time with your loved ones? Remember that moment? You want to compare that moment to, okay, what is too much? When you start having that difficult time and you start feeling out of balance, that's what these early warning signs are about. Another way to think about it to get to these early warning signs is to use a framework like we used back on the Christian Identity Statement, where you're comparing who am I, what am I like on a Christ-like day, good day, okay day, bad day, worst day, that type of categorization and giving you the full spectrum. You can go through on each of those and identify where that ties in.

So for example, as we take a look at the feelings I was just talking about, maybe an okay day, moodiness and irritability are okay, they happen, but on a bad day you're getting into outbursts unexpectedly, you're getting into arguments, then on a worst day you're just pissed off to no end and there's not a chance that you're going to smile. So think about those gradations in each of those categories for different common behaviors that you have and that can help you identify those early warning signs. We'll come back to these in the exercise today to put those in, figure out then how do we use that to help us reduce stress and to improve work-life balance and so that you can regain harmony as you're moving into the space before it continues to progress, where you stumble and fall and lead to your health getting worse, your relationships getting more difficult because of all of the stress and work that you're taking on.

Getting into the last concept that I'm going to talk about today, this is called signs of breakdown. Now these are go one step beyond that early warning sign. So if we look about that spectrum of a Christ-like day, a good day, an okay day, a bad day, a worse day, these means that you're having more worse days than bad days.

So it's not that your life has gone into full meltdown and crisis, you're not having a health crisis or been diagnosed with some stress-related disease because of how chronically stressed you've been or that your relationship is ending and someone's walking out on you because you work too much, you don't give enough time for them. This is those signs that you're starting to get really close to it. If you haven't been there, you may not really recognize it.

If you've been there or gotten really close, you probably have an understanding of what I mean. There is a continuum from I am having a fabulous day and not very stressed out to somewhat stressed out, to a little bit more stressed out, to a little bit more stressed out, to like I'm starting not to being able to handle it. I'm having even more difficulty being able to handle it all and keep it all together versus crash, okay.

So this is where we're talking about where you're over in this spectrum here of having difficulty, a lot of difficulties dealing with it, more worse days than bad days. So this means that you've been working on it and despite your best efforts, you've gotten to the point where just feeling worse and worse or the workload has gotten sky high. There's still time to take action before the crisis occurs.

So so many times people often feel that when they're having the most difficult time that there is very little you can do to help yourself. You think, oh my goodness, I've gone too far. I'm off the edge of this cliff. I can't do anything. But you're not off the edge of the cliff. You're not there yet.

(17:15 - 23:20)

You can still grab hold of that ledge and be able to pull yourself forward and up from it. So when you have prior planning, when you're in a pretty good space, you have that plan. You know exactly what you're going to do.

It's not like you're just grasping at that that tree that's hanging on the edge and expecting to pull it up for dear life. You've put down that ladder of what you're going to be able to have multiple spots to grab on to as you're coming up to that edge and starting to fall over so that you can climb yourself back up and to get to feeling better and have less stress and to get back to a manageable workload so that you have work-life balance. But it takes some forethought because if you do get to that point, you're not gonna have the mental capabilities, the energy, the time to strategically figure your way out of it.

So it's best to do it now before you get to that spot. But even when you are super stressed out and you have a ton of work, there are things that you can do and that's what we want to make sure that through today's exercise you're starting to think about. So getting back to that same kind of question.

So how do you know when you're on that edge? When you're like your foot's starting to come off the edge, you're starting to fall and you need something to grab on to so you don't fall over that proverbial edge and go into a full-blown crisis. So what are those signs in your life? You want to do the same type of thing with your consumption patterns, your behaviors, your thoughts, your feelings, your sensations. Identify what those are.

Use the same approach that you did last time. And again, just take it on that ongoing continuum if you think about it. So using again as an example, let's go with a physical sensation this time.

So if you've got physical discomfort for you, is an early warning sign. Maybe now that next level is that you've got a headache requiring aspirin. If you're anything like I was at the peak of some of my stress and workaholic tendencies, early warning signs is I can get through a couple of days with a headache and popping aspirin and self-medicate.

But it became the much more significant when I was more than 48 hours and it was still going on. And it was getting worse and it wasn't getting better. If it was 48 hours it was getting better, I'd be like, okay, yay, I'm on the other side of it and I am getting myself improved.

But there are that before the breakdown sign you want to be kind of firm on it. So depending on where you are in your life and what's going on, you may have different definitions of between early warning sign and signs of breakdown of what that really means for you and how you can detect it. Moving along, we're going to do the exercise today.

It's all about preventing the crisis. These are your risk management plans, your mitigations to ensure that it's very clear of what you want to do. So think about it like if you don't deal with risk management at work, think of it as like your family emergency plan.

It's in the event of a fire, how are you guys getting out of the house? Where are you all meeting? How are you communicating? If there's a, we lived in a tsunami zone for a while when we were in Southern California. We'd had to have our plan of where are we going to meet if the tsunami comes through and we are coming from different directions. Or when we lived in South Florida, okay, hurricane preparedness, we're going to have all of this ready.

So in case if we lose power on the other side of the hurricane, what we're going to do. So that's what I mean by building these plans so that you have already identified in your stress management plan, what are you going to do when you have these early warning signs occurring in your life and these signs that a breakdown is imminent. You want to prevent the crisis.

You want to do what you can to make it so that things don't get worse. So you're not taking on even more work so that you're not taking on more stress and you're not damaging the relationships that you have around you or continuing to break down your health through this process. So as I mentioned before, you really want to establish these when you're in a good space and you're able to make clear decisions.

So as you go through and you get more and more stressed out because of how stress impacts your cognitive and your emotional responses, it's really hard to kind of figure your way out of it when you're there. So at least if you know that this is something that you're struggling with, let's get some good plans in place on paper so that you can use them. So we're going to start with the early warning signs.

So these are early warning signs. You want to identify when you have so many and you can pick maybe when I have three of these things happening in my life, when I have five of these things happening in my life, whatever your deal is or if they show up at all. I don't know where you are in your stress recovery so pick what makes sense to you.

Then I must do this or avoid this. This is the musts. You want to go through and populate based upon your wellness toolbox ideas, your tiny habits ideologue, your regular routine.

Sometimes you know you've been sacrificing some of those things in your regular routine so you can do that a little bit more. So maybe there's things that you don't sacrifice when you're seeing your early warning signs. So what are those must do's or avoids? So take a moment if you need to pause the video so you can jot those down.

(23:23 - 24:20)

Then we're going to move into your could do's. So what are some things you want to think about doing? So maybe there's particularly a lot of the things we talked about in the wellness toolbox episodes. It's go out with friends, something you don't normally do as part of your regular routine but you know really helps you relax.

It helps you disconnect so that you can de-stress and recharge and unwind. So you want to have a handful of those things just so that they're readily available for you. So that's the early warning sign action plan.

Pretty simple right? Then we get into the signs of breakdown. This is really all must do's or avoids. You're going to give yourself fewer choices because when it's early warning signs, you've got plenty of runway still of how much more stress you can handle, how much more work you can take before like things start really falling apart.

(24:21 - 25:17)

So but now that you're at this next step, you're having more worse days than bad days, you give yourself fewer choices. This is got to be really clear about what you must do or avoid. It's got to be very directive with very clear instructions so that you prevent yourself from falling off of that cliff without some kind of safety net, without some way of getting back up on the other edge.

That's what this phase of action planning is all about. So again if you need to take a moment and pause the video to jot down your ideas. As you go through these exercises there is no right or wrong.

You are unique. Only you and God knows what's going on in your life and your body in terms of what feels right, how much can you take, how much can you endure before you need to take God's way out that he's offering you. And it's going to change as you're on this journey.

(25:17 - 29:58)

Some of the things that you're feeling and experience right now you can handle at really high levels. But once you get to a point where you're better managing your stress and it's a lot less, you can change some of these things and catch it even sooner. So you're not seeing such big swings in your stress levels.

This is all based upon your personal stress resilience and tolerance. And you recognize because some days you don't have the same tolerance that you do on other days because you're hungry, you're angry, you're anxious, you're lonely, you're tired. There may be some adjustments even in those and from that view.

And as you put these you want to really focus on hope. You don't want to focus on self-blame, shame, guilt, any of these things that you do to berate yourself. It will just make the stress worse.

You want to focus on hope and feeling better. And sometimes as you're putting these plans together it's sometimes useful just to ask your loved ones, hey when am I getting to be a little bit of a bear? When do you think it's getting to be that I'm working too much or I'm stressing too much? What are some of those things? Because if you trained yourself to kind of ignore all of these signs from your physical, mental, spiritual being and from Holy Spirit you might need to talk to somebody so you get some increased self-awareness and begin to work on those. And just the fact that you're asking them I'm sure it will help promote some relationship peace because you are asking them for their assistance so that you can get better, so that you can do your part to regain that peace and calm so you can thrive and flourish.

So now that you've got your plans together how can you become more sensitive to those signs that you wrote down? How can you use them to help you to stay more balanced? So give some thought to that one. If you're enjoying journaling or have been able to add prayer to your routine it may be as simple as a couple of behavioral checks is part of your daily self-evaluation or prayer that you're just checking in with yourself to make sure you're not falling into it. Maybe it's a weekly thing not a daily thing.

So whatever's right for you but you need to start increasing your awareness that these signs and these signals that are coming on and you want to keep these action plans of what happens when these signs show up in my life of what you're going to do. You want to keep them in your stress journal somewhere easily accessible so you can come back to them. You don't want random pieces of paper that go get lost because when you're totally stressed out you're not going to remember where you put them.

I guarantee it. So put them somewhere where you're going to use them where they're regularly can be found. If you're not journaling maybe they go in your bible just so that you have ready and easy access without any thinking of where these plans are.

And one of the other things after you've used them for a little bit so today may be too early, ask yourself when are you well enough? When do you get back to okay days and good days so that you don't need to take these extra measures that you just identified? It's an indication of when you can revert back to your regular routines or when you need to make some changes and revert back to those. So as you work with these action plans and these and start recognizing these signs more you can use these in different ways as you manage your stress as you're at different points in the curve of how stressed out you are. I know I ran through these exercises pretty quickly so if you have any questions please email me sharon@whisperingfieldswellness.com. Next week I'll focus more on building physical resilience to stress as part of your stress management.

So it's all about building your grit. How do you increase your reserves and your tolerance and resilience? For in summary this is all about getting in back in tune and in rhythm with how God designed us and it gives us a lot of simple ways to restore energy and to improve that stress tolerance and they work perfectly with tiny habits. I hope this video has given you plenty of ideas for your stress management plan as you are do-it-yourselfing your stress recovery journey.

I pray that you are creating the changes you want in your life to be less stressed and have work more work-life balance.

Click the link to download my worksheet on building tiny habits. You can effectively make change in your life with seconds a day. You can get started on this in five minutes or less.

It is that simple, I promise. If you've been working with this worksheet for a while and watching the videos, if you want to work with me so you can put these stress recovery tools together better and go deeper, click the services link below. As a Christian stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance, to ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes that you desire in your life.

I can come alongside to support and encourage you and share a few strategies and tools to help you with mindset, lifestyle, and diet changes. See you next episode. Have a blessed day.

NEXT VIDEO IN SERIES: Define Success

RELATED: Create Stress Management Plans

Stress journal templates mentioned in this video are found here.

As mentioned in the video, you can get a jumpstart on building faith-driven tiny habits based on what's stressing you out. Check out this guide to take steps toward your goals of reducing stress and improving work-life balance!

If you love the approach shared in the video and are ready to slow down and find more balance and harmony in your life, do you know what to do to take the first steps toward stress recovery? Book a free consultation about how stress recovery can help you!

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The post Grace Over Grind: Plan Ahead to Relieve Stress & Improve Work-Life Harmony appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Relieve Stress and Recharge in 3 Minutes: Simple Desk-Friendly Habits for Peace and Productivity

Sharon McCall — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:44:59 +0000

Do you ever feel like there’s no time to breathe between tasks?

Maybe your to-do list feels endless, and the idea of taking even a short break seems impossible. You might even worry that stepping away will slow you down or make you seem unproductive. But what if taking just a few minutes to reset could actually make you more focused, effective, and calm?

I remember the days - back to back meetings, taking advantage of every spare minute between meetings to get other tasks done. I would go hours past the signals that my body gave for fatigue, the need for a bio-break, hunger or thirst. Just keep pushing until I got through everything that was required for the day. The only break would be as I shut the computer down to take 5 min to refill my coffee and use the restroom before a tense commute home, with more phone calls.

Have you trained yourself to stop listening to the cues of low energy? Some people think that breaks are a sign of weakness, a loss of productivity or a very low priority activity for themselves. In reality breaks are a way to recharge your energy and fuel another spurt of activity.

The Beauty of God’s Design: Why Micro-Breaks Work

In our busy, overcommitted lives, it’s easy to ignore the cues our bodies and minds give us when we’re pushing too hard. Fatigue, tension, irritability, and even fidgeting are all signs that we need to pause and reset. Yet, as high-achieving professionals, we often feel there’s no time to take a break. But God, in His infinite wisdom, designed our bodies to thrive in rhythms, with periods of activity followed by moments of rest.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17a NIV)

God created our bodies with rhythms that require both effort and rest. Ignoring those natural rhythms leads to stress, fatigue, and even burnout. By taking intentional micro-breaks—just 30 seconds to 3 minutes—you can reset your nervous system, improve your focus, and relieve stress, all while honoring the way God designed you to work. Ideally, you want to get to 15-20 minutes every 90-120 minutes of work, but every little bit of rest helps, particularly if you are doing it more frequently through the day. By building these habits into your daily routine, you can interrupt cycles of overwhelm and be in harmony with rhythms that promote balance, clarity, and effectiveness.

Here, we’ll address common concerns about taking breaks and share simple, faith-centered habits to help you recharge and experience God’s peace in the middle of a busy day.

1. “How can I find time for breaks when my schedule is already packed?”

When every moment feels accounted for, taking a break might seem impossible. But breaks don’t have to be long or disruptive to make a difference. Even a 1- to 3-minute pause can give your body and mind the reset they need to function more effectively.

Tip: Start by pairing a micro-break with an existing routine.

For example:

Take three deep breaths while waiting for your computer to load or for a meeting to start.
Pause for a quick stretch before sitting down or standing up.
Say a silent prayer while refilling your coffee or water.

By embedding breaks into your day, you won’t lose momentum—you’ll gain clarity and energy for the tasks ahead.

2. “What can I do in just 2-3 minutes that will actually make a difference?”

It’s easy to think that a few minutes aren’t enough to matter, but God’s design of our nervous system tells us otherwise. Micro-breaks calm the fight-or-flight response, restore focus, and allow you to reconnect with His peace.

Try This: Deep belly breathing for 2 minutes.

Place one hand on your stomach.
Inhale deeply through your nose, feeling your stomach rise.
Exhale slowly through your mouth, letting your stomach fall.
As you breathe, reflect on a Bible verse or silently pray, “Lord, fill me with Your peace,” on the inhale and, “I release my worries to You,” on the exhale.

This simple act can lower stress hormones, reset your mind, and refocus your attention.

Or This: Wash stress off for 1 minute

Mentally warm your hands by imagining running hot water running over them (20 seconds)
Physically warm you hands as if you are washing your hands (30 seconds)
Shake away the imaginary drips of water (10 seconds)

This counteracts the stress response and increases relaxation. It also helps your wrists and hands maintain flexibility and improved circulation.

3. “How do I remind myself to take a break?”

In the rush of a busy day, it’s easy to forget to pause. That’s why pairing breaks with existing triggers or creating reminders is so important.

Ideas: Triggers, reminders, routines, boundaries

Use an app or timer to remind you to pause every 90-120 minutes.
Create visual cues, like a sticky note on your monitor that says “Breathe” or “Pray.”
Build a habit stack: for example, every time you finish a meeting, take a 2-minute walk or stretch.
Strengthen the controls on your calendar schedule to ensure you have effective boundaries.

These small prompts will help you build consistency, allowing breaks to become a natural and seamless part of your day.

4. “Will my coworkers or boss think I’m slacking off?”

In high-pressure work environments, it’s common to fear judgment for taking breaks. But micro-breaks aren’t about slacking—they’re about working smarter. Short pauses restore focus, reduce errors, and ultimately make you more effective.

Suggestion: Reframe the Conversation

Taking a moment to reset isn’t selfish—it’s an investment in doing your best work. Colossians 3:23 reminds us to work wholeheartedly for the Lord, not for human masters. While your boss conducts your end of year performance, Jesus is who you are truly working for. (Who's opinion do you value more?) You are taking a moment to energize so you can do the Lord's work as best you can. With your work ethic and long hours, it is unlikely that anyone would consider calling you a slacker, that's just your inner judgments holding you back from being your best. Pausing for a quick prayer or stretch can help you approach your work with renewed focus and energy, honoring God through excellence.

5. “What if taking breaks makes me feel more stressed because I’ll fall behind?”

It’s tempting to think that skipping breaks will help you power through your workload, but the opposite is true. Pushing yourself too hard leads to diminishing returns—more mistakes, less focus, and higher stress. Taking a few minutes to reset allows you to come back stronger and more effective.

Practical Solution: Start small

Can you agree that that you won't fall behind with a 3 minute or less activity? Particularly if the activity is one that actually helps energize and restore you so you can be more productive and effective? In the next section are plenty of really short & effective ideas that can reduce stress. Start with whichever idea shared below helps you feel the most stress relief. These short pauses not only reduce stress but also improve your efficiency, allowing you to complete tasks faster and with greater focus.

Quick and Powerful Micro-Breaks to Try at Your Desk

Here are a few easy ways to start integrating micro-breaks into your workday:

Deep Breathing:

Calm your nervous system with 1-2 minutes of slow, intentional breaths. This will signal your nervous system to relax, lower your heart rate, and reduce cortisol levels.

Prayer Break:

Say a short prayer, asking Holy Spirit for guidance and to help you give your burdens to God. He ALWAYS brings peace and improves well-being.

Gratitude Pause:

Write down three things you’re thankful for. This will shift your focus from stress to joy, promoting positive emotions that can break the stress response.

Stretching:

Loosen tight muscles by shaking it off, neck rolls, shoulder stretches, shimmy or hip rotations or a forward fold. Stretching or shaking releases muscle tension, improves circulation, and resets your posture.

Doodle or Color:

Take a creative pause to relax your mind. Synchronizing hand – mind coordination, slows the spin of thoughts as you focus on the end of the pen.

Hum or Sing:

A quick hymn can lift your spirit and help you refocus. The vibration from humming soothes your nervous system.

Release Tension:

Close your eyes and check in with your body. Scan from toes to top of head to find tension. Progressively tense and release where ever you feel pain or tension as you breathe. Self-massage can also be beneficial. Maintaining calm body language while stressed often leads to a lot of neck and facial tension, making funny faces to loosen up can get you back to a more natural smile.

Quick Walk:

Take a 2-minute stroll to refresh your mind and body. Bonus unwind & recharge for going outside to get some sun and fresh air.

Laughter:

Find a reason to laugh as it releases endorphins, lowers stress hormones, and creates a sense of connection and positivity.

Connect with a Loved One:

A quick text or call reminds you that you are loved and they are more important than what is stressing you out at the moment.

Forgiveness Reframe:

When someone has irritated you, take a moment in prayer or a short mental exercise to gain a new perspective and transform your feelings from aggravation or resentment to compassion and care.

Grace & Eating:

Instead of multi-tasking through your meal, say grace and focus on slowly chewing and enjoying the first few bites of food. It will improve your digestion and metabolism.

Outer Ear Rubbing:

Soothe your nerves and calm down by running a finger along the crease where the ear attaches to the skull and small circles behind the earlobe to top of jaw.

God’s Design for Rhythms of Work and Rest

God has intricately designed our bodies to balance effort with rest. During times of intense pressure & focus, our stress response system—often called the "fight or flight" system—can become overactive, flooding our bodies with stress hormones like cortisol. While this response is essential for short-term challenges, staying in it too long can drain our energy and inhibit creativity, problem-solving, and even digestion.

Micro-breaks allow our nervous system to transition from this state to one of rest and recovery, promoting healing and clarity. By activating relaxation responses through small, intentional actions, we can calm our minds, reduce tension, and create space for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our work.

By embracing micro-breaks, you align with the rhythms God built into your body—times of effort balanced with moments of rest. These short pauses aren’t just practical; they’re opportunities to reconnect with God’s peace and allow Him to renew your strength.

I pray...

I pray that this article gives you some simple ideas to try and reduce your stress. All of these only take a quick moment and can be used in any combination that works for you. Imagine finishing your workday with more energy, less stress, and a sense of accomplishment—not because you powered through but because you worked with focus, purpose, and faith.

Change starts with small, consistent actions. By incorporating micro-breaks into your day, you’ll not only relieve stress but also develop a deeper awareness of God’s presence in your work. Only you and God know what’s best for you. Let Him help you identify the right rhythm of action and rest. As you spend more time at work energized, focused and productive (instead of stressed, tired and distracted), a secondary benefit is greater work-life harmony. With any time freed up from being more productive and having more energy at the end of the workday, you can enjoy time with loved ones, get more sleep, or have fun with your favorite hobbies. This will help you relieve stress and achieve greater work-life harmony.

Putting It Into Action: Build Tiny Habits for Big Change

Ready to make micro-breaks a natural part of your day? Download my free guide to building tiny faith-driven habits that promote stress relief and work-life balance. With these simple tools, you can start today to transform your workday by building small, meaningful routines that honor your body, mind, and spirit. Go from striving to thriving and flourishing as God intends for you!

The post Relieve Stress and Recharge in 3 Minutes: Simple Desk-Friendly Habits for Peace and Productivity appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Dread Taking Vacation? Maybe It’s Time to Rethink

Sharon McCall — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 22:46:05 +0000

Arrrghh!!!

"Arrghh … vacation … how dare someone suggest I take time off? It would just get me further behind, not all my tasks could be delegated or paused. Even when I was drowning in overload, exhausted and desperately needing a break, I was resistant to taking time off."

Sound like you?

As a boss, I’ve also been on both sides of this too.

There’s a business emergency. I know this was previously approved, can you reconsider the timing of your vacation? If not, let’s go over your coverage plan. You might need to check-in each day to ensure this is going smoothly.
You shouldn’t have booked tickets without getting approval in advance – we already maximized who is out of the office on those days.
You had vacation during the holidays last year, it is someone else’s turn this year.
You have weeks of vacation. Please schedule them before this date so they are used by year end. These are your benefits that you aren’t using. Also, it helps ensure we can better resource plan.

Have you been part of these conversations?

Remember: Vacation is a benefit that has to be supported

Employers offer vacation as part of total compensation package, but depending on where you work you may feel like they begrudgingly allow it. Vacation is part of your employment contract & the company policy, so needs to be honored. Even if taking vacation is not openly encouraged, your boss needs to allow you time off.

Additionally, you may feel uncomfortable if the boss comes and asks for alternatives, but you never know what happens when you openly discuss options. For example, there was a time when a big emergency arose right before a key individual was scheduled to take a family vacation. It had been approved months earlier. We had conversations about coverage plans and changing dates. In the end, the person went on vacation, and I traveled to the site to support the emergency and help cover it. We agreed that I would text and call his personal cell, only if there was something the team couldn’t answer or handle. (The team was great; I didn’t need to reach out, but he still chose to check in a couple of times for his peace of mind.)

Whether you don't take your vacation because of your own pressure or because of the work environment, maybe it is time to rethink your perspective.

Vacation for US Employees

Did you realize that millions of US employees are “paying” their employer by not taking vacation? Also, plenty of you work on holidays and days off, giving your employer even more of your time.

According to a survey on 2023 vacation usage – 62% of workers with PTO did not use their vacation time and 5.5% did not take any vacation time off! Over 30% of PTO went unused.

Friendly vacation accrual policies

There are a few states that ensure you are paid for unused time. If you live in a state where the employer is required to pay you back, you might enjoy a bit of “bonus” money at the end of the year for any unused paid time off. That might be enough incentive for you to decide to save your days. If the company policy is that you can accrue them through your career, you may also save them for a rainy day or retirement.

One person I worked with had accrued 10 weeks of vacation over the years and used the pay out as part of his retirement plan. Another person in a similar situation, used the time to slowly transition into "part time" and then retirement, with no payout at the end. A different person I worked with, intentionally saved up time to use when his first child was born so he could regularly have late starts when it was his turn to wake up in the middle of the night for the babies first few months.

For many years, because I had more vacation than my husband, that payout was part of our end-of-year planning, even if I decided to visit family without him for a few days a year. (Then we moved to state that didn’t require payout and the company didn’t use vacation cap / rollover, so I admit there are years I gave up time.)

But this is not the case everywhere

By these examples, you can see there are certainly very valid reasons to accrue vacation (if that is allowed). But if you have a use it or lose it policy at the company you work at, you probably really want to reconsider why you aren't taking your time off.

As you work on reducing your stress and improving your work-life balance, even scheduling half days on a regular cadence can go a long way toward giving you more time for yourself or with loved ones.

If that is too hard, as you are still strengthening up your boundaries about getting out of work on time, maybe a more seasonal / quarterly approach works better.

RELATED: How Do I Maintain Boundaries?

Why aren't people taking vacation?

There are many reasons that people don’t take vacation, and it’s not necessarily because of work environment or the boss says no. Here’s just a few of them that I’ve heard:

I’ll get too far behind.
Everyone is busy enough already, I don’t want to dump my work on them while I am out of office.
The pace of change is crazy – the one time I took vacation I came back and several of my projects had taken a new turn it made it even harder to catch up. I won’t do that gain.
I don’t trust that I can delegate my work to others, they’ll mess things up and make it even harder to catch up.
I’m indispensable.
I’m just going to be working anyways, so I may as well not take the time off.
I’ve got to just finish this project and then I can take time off (but isn’t there always another big project?)

Have you challenged your thinking?

Look around you. Are other people taking vacation? Do you feel resentment if you help cover for someone taking a well-deserved break? Are things grinding to a halt if a higher-level leader or another expert goes on vacation? Are there people still being successful in their performance, even if they take a long 2-3 weeks vacation?

If they can take time off, you can to!

God’s Natural Rhythm – Seasonal Celebrations (aka in the modern world vacations)

When you neglect to use your vacation and take your days off, you are not living with God’s natural rhythm. This goes beyond the seasonal flow of agricultural work and the weekly sabbath. God intends for His people to have periods of celebration, rest, and community.

For generations, people have predominantly worked according to the annual cycle of activity for agriculture and animal husbandry. There are natural periods of ebb and flow. The whole community, even those that did not have these professions, supported the seasonal activities and celebrations.

The Bible calls out times when the community would get together to rest and celebrate the season's wins. Multiple annual festivals, like Passover, are listed in Leviticus. Others were added over time with Israel’s victories, like Purim or Hanukkah. One of the common themes across all of these Holy Days is coming together with loved ones in the community, praising and giving thanks to God, and not doing customary work.

At the height of Jesus’ ministry, even he took days off and recognized the Holy Days of his time. When he needed to be refreshed, Jesus would step away, sometimes without informing his disciples. The Last Supper was part of celebrating Passover. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, also fell on a Jewish holiday.

(You determine which Holy Days are important to your faith practice – that’s between you and God. I’m certainly not qualified to get into a theological discussion on this…)

This modern American view of intensely working 52 weeks a year is not what God intended for us. This hectic pace, without rest creates separation from Him and each other.

Keep it simple!

I’m just advocating that you take some time off and “do no regular work” (Numbers 28:26 NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2028%3A26&version=NIV)

With as many hours as you work for your employer, vacation doesn’t have to be elaborate, exotic trips or being a local tourist with a staycation. Your loved ones may appreciate you being at home, where you get a chance to be more involved in their day-to-day activities.

If you aren’t comfortable just relaxing or can’t think of any hobbies because you’ve been too busy for a long time, be “employed” by your loved ones for your vacation. I’m sure they’d love to come up with a list of chores or activities they want you to be involved in. Either approach enables you to bond, unwind, and maybe reinforce some habits that can carry over when you return to work.

RELATED: If you aren't comfortable relaxing, you may want to consider this question... check this out.

Reducing Vacation Stress

It's all about planning, coverage and a plan to on how to address the major items when you get back. A few key steps:

Before you leave, brief the individuals that are covering for you.
Ensure your out of office note is clear on who is handling what.
Depending on the volume of email and the duration of your time off, you may want to add a note on your out-of-office notification that when you return, you may not be able to respond to everyone in the backlog of communication, so request someone to leave a voicemail or resend the email when you get back for the highest importance issues.
Set up appointments on your first day back to meet with your boss and everyone in your coverage plan to catch you up. A conversation is much more informative than reading emails.
Block some time to read the most recent sets of minutes or long string emails.
When you get back to the office, it’s totally acceptable not to be up to date on every twist, turn and plot twist of what occurred while you were out of office.

If you truly feel that you need to check in on email / voicemail when you are on vacation, set clear boundaries on your time and minimize the number of people you directly communicate with. Alternatively, set specific escalation points where you will receive a text message if something is turning into a 5-Alarm fire while you are gone and only then will you check-in.

I’m sure you can creatively figure out how to give yourself some time off, where you truly disconnect. You’ve earned it – from all of your efforts and dedication as well that it is a paid benefit that you are entitled to.

My hope for you...

I hope that you are able to make a decision to use your vacation time. It may feel uncomfortable talking to your boss about taking vacation, but they have to work with you to grant you time off. A solid coverage plan goes a long way to making both you and a difficult boss feel comfortable with you taking time off, even in the midst of challenges.

Making a clean break for a few days will help you reduce stress and have a healthier mindset when you return. Even a staycation, working half days from home while the kids are at school so you can freely enjoy being home and interacting with them in the morning and when they get home, will soothe your stress.

God wants you to thrive and flourish, not languish under the heavy burden of constantly and intensely working. This is a chance for you to grow to be kinder to yourself and your loved ones by taking off the time that you have earned.

Looking for simple and quick tips instead of strategies on how to reduce stress and boost your energy naturally? Check out these 8 ideas.

Interested in seeing if working with me on stress recovery will benefit you? Book a free consultation.

The post Dread Taking Vacation? Maybe It’s Time to Rethink appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Grace Over Grind: Why Are You Stressed & Working Too Much?

Sharon McCall — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 01:07:26 +0000

Work stress stems from more than personal drive and work environment... Watch to learn more!

Content Toggle Headline

[00:00:00] Hello, Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Welcome to the Grace Over Grind podcast. You are in the right place if you are done with busy and hectic long work days with almost no breaks in sleep, which has led to stress and exhaustion. If you've been working greater than 55 hour work weeks for a long time with barely any time for sleep and loved ones by the time you get done with everything you need to do at work and at home, and if you find yourself regularly running on fumes, Despite how much caffeine and sugar that you're consuming through the day to being able to keep your energy up.

[00:00:40] Well, welcome. Today, we're going to cover a little bit on my perspective about why you are feeling so much stress and exhaustion from working too much. So as we take a look at your childhood, I am sure we will find that you are a studious little kid doing everything possible to being able to ensure that your parents were proud of you, which set the foundation of how you're, you constantly are striving for excellence and to succeed.

[00:01:09] And that has carried you into your career where you're doing your best to ensure that you can provide a great life for your loved ones and for yourselves and taking care of their future. As you've been at work, you've noticed that because of your success, your strengths and the confidence that you have in what you do, people keep coming to you for help or to being able to give you new projects.

[00:01:33] And that's great for all of the recognition, but it is slowly increased that workload, particularly in these last few years as every company it seems is being at, is asking their employees to do more with less. They keep coming to all other stars. But they're not giving them the support that they need to being able to to have a manageable workload So it takes a little bit of different approach to being able to handle some of it But slowly through all of this the hours have ticked up that you're working each week And so as you've been thinking about it, you know, this is like a lot of stress, you know a lot of hours Maybe it'd be better at a different company, you know, and I'm sure this has crossed your mind You're like I have invested a lot in this organization.

[00:02:24] I like the people that I'm working with. I like what I'm doing It's just it's a little too much. I could go look for another job, but I Really don't want to this is an insecure economy I don't want to end up having to add the stress to my life of looking for another job. It just, that just doesn't seem like the right solution.

[00:02:45] And so all of this combined has ended up leaving you just a little more stressed and exhausted than normal. There's really more to it. There is so much more than just what's going on in your work environment and your normal Drive to succeed. If you take a look at modern Western culture, it really is designed to wear us down and to being able to keep us compliant.

[00:03:13] They don't want us questioning what the norm is. And through all of this, it strives to create isolation for everyone, where we're always looking around and comparing ourselves to each other. We're feeling separated from God because of how chaotic it is. And it's hard to be able to find the time in the space, being able to see that there's something more than what's going on right in front of us.

[00:03:38] Everything in mainstream media and advertising, it keeps trying to constantly convince us that we are not enough. That we need to be thinner. We need to end up being smarter. We need to be able to do more and be more than who we are. Which just puts us in a little bit of that ongoing grind and strain on a regular basis.

[00:04:02] And they're always encouraging us. to being able to go after that next shiny object or to keep up with the Joneses and to being able just to keep doing more that there's never enough and never to be content with what you've achieved. And in this environment, the last thing that they've done is for anybody that has traditional Christian values, they started to twist them.

[00:04:26] They have displaced the family as being the center. Faith is being put to the side. So many workplaces, it's not safe to be recognized as a Christian anymore. And you have to almost completely separate it so that it's only in your personal life. To why you are feeling stressed, exhausted, frustrated, and drained.

[00:04:48] It just keeps adding up. It's no wonder that it's got you spinning and feeling a little bit stuck on how do I make these changes? How do I do this in a way that doesn't risk my financial stability? Doesn't risk my performance at work? Feel that there's a need for the change. So that you can end up being more present for your loved ones and available.

[00:05:11] You really want this, you want to be able to be recognized as that parent of the year to your child, that spouse that's going to end up being there through thick and thin, no matter what's going on. You recognize As much as you've been ignoring it, your body, mind, and spirit have been encouraging you to rest and restore.

[00:05:33] You've been burning the candle at both ends, and it is getting to you, and you need to make some changes before it leads to a health crisis. And on top of that, you've realized, you know, you've got such great hobbies and interests in some, but you haven't been able to spend any time on them. But I believe that there is hope.

[00:05:53] By doubling down on your values of faith, family, and freedom. We can make the space in your life to be able to enjoy these things more and reclaim that time from work. You can restore your energy so that you have enough for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by applying different tips and strategies to manage your workload and your boss's expectations, you can still be successful at work.

[00:06:24] For example, when they come to you with that next big project that would be great to do and you're like, “Oh my goodness, how am I going to do it all?” You will have the strategies on how to handle it and tackle it so that you do not overcommit yourself. And you do it in such a way as to develop the team and to being able to make people recognize about how well you are safeguarding the company's resources and time.

[00:06:49] We also figure out how you can end up adjusting your mindset and. including prayer to being able to stick to your priorities. So that one more thing at 445 that you're like, I've got time to get this done before I head home doesn't turn into, Oh my God, I'm late again. How do you make sure that you can consistently being able to be there for those things that are really important for you?

[00:07:13] And also end up making sure that you have those tiny healthy habits. Find those little small areas of change that just take a few seconds, maybe a few minutes each day. that then can snowball into much larger changes. With this approach through stress recovery coaching, you will be able to slow down, recharge your energy, reclaim your time from work, and reconnect with God, self, and your loved ones.

[00:07:43] Book a free consultation at the link below to learn more. If you're not ready for one on one coaching yet, check the website for more articles and quick tips on how you can being able to better manage your stress and your workload. In the end, I want to make sure that you have the support that you need to being able to improve your work life harmony.

[00:08:05] You deserve to flourish and live the life that God intended for you. I want to thank you for your time today and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Have a blessed day!

Now that you have made the decision that you are ready to slow down and find more balance and harmony in your life, do you know what to do to take the first steps toward stress recovery?

Book a free consultation about how stress recovery can help you!

Not ready for a consultation, sign up for the newsletter to get updates on articles and other tips to reduce stress and improve work-life balance.

The post Grace Over Grind: Why Are You Stressed & Working Too Much? appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Work-Life Harmony: Practice Sabbath, Reduce Stress & Stop Working Too Much

Sharon McCall — Fri, 17 May 2024 18:12:30 +0000

God's Natural Rhythm - Weekly Sabbath, Even He Rested!

With the hectic pace of modern life and being connected to work 24/7 – it is all too easy for working hours to creep out of the workweek into the weekend. Hours with email, catching up from last week, preparing for the next week, or supporting the weekend team have slowly become part of your weekend routine. Taking away valuable time with family, friends, or for yourself. Precious time that allows you to reduce stress and recharge yourself. With today's frantic pace of life, we’ve fallen away from the natural rhythm God wants from us – one day of rest per week that also focuses on our relationships with God, self, and loved ones.

(Whether you are religious or not, think of it as one day per week to break away from the theology of modern society, which wants you to feel like you can never have enough and that you are never enough. Imagine what it can do for your well-being to protect one day to focus on key relationships and hobbies that revitalize you. A day to celebrate that you are unique and wonderful, that you love your life and all that you have worked so hard for!)

I'd love to take a day off from work each week. But how??

Now that you’ve decided to improve work life balance and reduce the work stress that you are under, you want to reclaim that time from work to dedicate it to yourself and your loved ones. Yet you are unsure how to reclaim it without feeling that you will be terribly behind at work or disappointing the work colleagues who rely on you.

So how about we work on the first step … clearing Sunday to focus on time with God and your loved ones. And not by pushing everything you do on Sunday into Saturday! (Even if you work one of those alternate workweek schedules where Sunday is a scheduled work day – let’s create space for 1 day a week to be a work-free zone. Everyone needs a day just for faith, self-care, and loved ones.) Compared to some of the other tips I've shared before, this one is a bit tougher to implement than finding a few moments here and there to recharge & unwind.

Benefits of Practicing the Sabbath / Taking A Day of Rest

What the Bible Says About Sabbath

The Sabbath is part of God’s design in Genesis. After a week of high intensity creativity and production, God took a break. None of us can fathom what it took for Him to create the Universe – but I have to imagine that was pretty intense even for Him! Yet, He felt it was important enough to recognize the accomplishments and take a break.

Brief Sidebar:
Out of curiosity, what is an equivalent high intensity work week for you? What happens at the end of each day and that week - are you grateful and recognizing all that you accomplished? Or criticizing what didn't get done? Or expecting even more grandiose deliverables? When the weekend arrives, are you resting or collapsing from exhaustion?

In the New Testament, Jesus transformed the Sabbath from a legalistic obligation into one with heart, by attending to holistic human needs. There are several examples in Luke where Jesus attended to people’s needs – teaching, healing, and caring for his disciples. Jesus anchored his behaviors based on what the people around him needed to grow closer to God. In Matthew 12:6-8, Jesus said:

I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

To me, this emphasizes that we should view the Sabbath as a choice out of a desire to be closer to God and to have our loved ones grow with Him as well. It is a chance to honor what God created with love in our hearts. An opportunity to intentionally connect and find greater meaning than just what is typically experienced daily.

When You Try To Control & Ignore Natural Weekly Rhythm of Work & Rest

As you have probably noticed, weeks or months of not taking enough time for yourself or your loved ones, wears you down and depletes you. When this trend continues for long periods, health risks increase. There is a correlation between long working hours (>55 hrs/week) and cardiovascular disease. Other lifestyle habits (like diet, exercise, or stress) often associated with rushing and being too busy also magnify this risk factor. 1 2 3

Having a day to restore yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually improves your capability to handle high pressure or stressful situations the next week. When we are drained or exhausted from work, Sabbath is a time of respite to show mercy to ourselves by getting some rest. A perfect time to refresh by:

connecting with our Creator,
enjoying personal interests,
lovingly getting some things done at home,
spending time with loved ones.

Any of these activities helps to reduce stress and boost energy naturally, instead of staying tightly wound by working for hours.

I'm SO Ready to Dedicate a Day for Faith, Family, & Freedom!

A Quick Pick List of Ideas to Try to Free Up Sundays from Work

Here are a few tactics to start up your brainstorming for what will work in your unique situation.

Let Go & Let God!

Every day ask God to guide you to only accept the amount of work you can get done through the week. Make sure you are clear on your boundary – 55hrs, 60 hrs, whatever is right for you! Keep the focus on the next right action being done in time. Keep in communication with stakeholders at work to actively manage priorities and workload.

Inboxes & To Do Lists Are Like Tides - Never Gone

Accept that you will never be at inbox ZERO or nothing on your TO DO list. Don’t let yourself feel the pressure of doing everything for everyone. This internal pressure adds stress and reduces your capability to focus on more urgent or important things.

Brain Dump

Friday write down everything work-related running around in your mind to make sure there nothing is lingering to distract you over the weekend. Ensure you have prepared anything needed before 10a Monday. Have a plan and a clear calendar for the first hour or so Monday to handle rest of preparations for the week.

Make It About Everyone, Not Just You!

Communicate to your direct reports, key peers & other critical stakeholders that you are seeking approaches to improve employee engagement & retention. You want to help everyone achieve a greater work-life balance. Get their input on how to reduce weekend communications. For example, have them text & call you if it is urgent and requires a response before 10a Monday, and figure out your typical response time to be clear on expectations. Be a good role model – if you do write emails over the weekend, don’t send them until Monday morning first thing.

Power of Singular Focus

Re-prioritize your work week to get more focused project work done, instead of bringing it home. Stop multi-tasking at work so you can be more creative, strategic, and productive. Block time for quiet focused tasks so you don’t bring them home.

Treat the Weekend Like You Are on A Dream Vacation

What do you currently do when you are on vacation or take a day off? What tactics work for you already so that you can treat most weekends like you are inaccessible on a dream holiday? Is your workplace culture one that respects out of office notes? Do you have a certain organizational routine you use so you can hit the ground running when you get back from vacation?

Lock Away the Phone & Laptop

Treat your weekend as sacred or like you are unavailable at a hospital caring for a loved one or on that dream vacation. Turn off your phone or laptop for the whole weekend. Put someone you trust in charge of it so you aren’t tempted to work. (If needed wean yourself off, cut back hours you have access to the work phone / laptop and/or target a few weekends per month. You likely need to prove to yourself that most weekends nothing will “blow up” at work if you don’t answer immediately.)

I know that each of you is in a unique situation, so some prayer, thought and planning may be needed to get you to a workable plan to have at least 1 day per weekend without any work.

Developing a Personalized Plan

Sometimes lists of tips just don’t get deep enough to give you a brainstorming idea that will help you. If that’s the case, I’ll give you a couple of more complex scenarios to help you identify where you might get started. For these, you’ll need to do some introspection or journaling to figure out an appropriate strategy to address how to free up one day per week to relax and recharge.

Scenario A: True Weekend Responsibilities

Over the weekend, are you only handling items that crop up between Friday afternoon and Monday morning? Plenty of you have downlines working weekends, sales, or other business activities occurring over weekends, so can't turn off the electronic leashes every weekend. For these, it will take a strategy to develop how best to protect some space for yourself on weekends. One of these journal prompts should help you identify a plan to better clear your weekend schedule of work activities.

How can you develop your team so that there is less urgency for your response over the weekend?
Instead of allowing notifications all weekend, can you limit looking at your work phone or computer to specific narrow time windows to create stronger boundaries between work and other activities on the weekend?
What processes / communications do you need to put into place to eliminate the need to respond until mid-morning on Monday? An example of this may be creating a coverage plan so only one person has to be on call for certain periods of time, allowing you or others to enjoy more of the weekend without the phone being an electronic leash and deadweight.

In many of my plant operations roles, I had people in the manufacturing plants 24/7 and had some active responsibility as part of escalation processes and issue resolution. You’ll have to figure out what truly requires your response versus your desire to stay informed & involved in real-time. Then it is about discipline to keep to the time windows you agree to check for escalations and not get pulled in. (For example, my husband would help remind me if I was getting sucked in too much and not keeping to the commitments I made to him.) You'll also need to ensure your team is accountable for their part of the weekend response plans and has the skills and authority to make informed decisions.

Scenario B: Too Much Work, Constantly in Catch Up Mode

You really have to get into the why this is occurring to be able to address. Here are a few prompts to explore:

Do you strive for perfect? How much will it improve your productivity if you adjust your personal standard of excellence a bit on certain deliverables? Talk to your boss and trusted stakeholders to see where you might be able to adjust your standard to still be a peak performer but require less of your time. As an example, are you spending hours on formatting documents where it might be better served to have an admin or another colleague cross-check and fix?
How much of your time is spent doing activities that someone specifically hasn’t requested, that you are doing to be nice or out of habit? When was the last time you checked if all the reports, updates, etc were still needed? Maybe you can help others save time by championing how to reduce overall administrative load and reduce email fatigue.
Have you learned to say no to requests or how to negotiate support if it is more than you can handle by the deadline? What resource management approach do you use to ensure you do not become overcommitted? How do you communicate with your boss when you need help?
Do you feel that you have to document all the details of what happened in the meetings you run? Is there technology or other approaches to save you time writing minutes?
Do you tend to procrastinate or chronically underestimate the amount of time required to complete activities? What time management approach do you use to ensure you stay on track or to document the time required for repeating activities so you can better plan?

Each of these ties to a mindset shift that may be needed to fully address why you keep finding yourself with too much work. Please note that these are just surface tactics to address symptoms of busyness, not the root cause.

If you have questions or a scenario that I haven’t adequately addressed, feel free to drop a comment below. I know that figuring out how to find time and changing how you work will be different for each of you. The impact of each change on your stress & energy levels will be unique for each of you.

Experiment for Yourself

Try some of these tactics for yourself for a couple of weeks or set up a strategic plan with your team at work. See what makes a difference and works for you to relieve stress, boost energy naturally, and reconnect. Depending on how much the workweek has encroached on the weekend and the situation at work, this may take some time to figure out.

Be patient and celebrate the small wins. It may require many tiny changes during the week that have a trickle impact on the weekend. I am confident that if you figure out how to spend more of your time on the weekends:

with God,
with your loved ones,
investing in your self-care,
energizing yourself with one of your hobbies.

As a result, you will feel less stress and more work-life harmony. Whether it is the whole weekend, the full Sabbath, or a few hours of it, this will be an improvement compared to your current work routines.

My hope for you...

I hope that you are able to slow down and start enjoying the natural rhythm of work and rest that God intends for us. Stepping outside of the hectic expectations of 24/7 and working too much will reward you far more than just less stress, more energy, and better relationships. Finding the space and time to honor God more will give Him greater opportunity to work in you. Leaning more into Him helps you sustain these changes and grows your character, so you can flourish.

Looking for simple and quick tips instead of strategies on how to reduce stress and boost your energy naturally? Check out these 8 ideas.

Interested in seeing if working with me on stress recovery will benefit you? Book a free consultation.

The post Work-Life Harmony: Practice Sabbath, Reduce Stress & Stop Working Too Much appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Why Am I So Overworked & Stressed?

Sharon McCall — Mon, 13 May 2024 00:57:07 +0000

Did I hear you say-

" I am SO DONE with the busy pace, exhaustion and frustration of "living" for work!"

I’m sure that this need for change has been rumbling for a while in your life …
•All the messages and signs from your loved ones that they need you more than whatever the next project or promotion promises to provide them
•The symptoms and signals from your body asking (or forcing you) to rest & restore instead of pushing through & enabling stress to slowly “kill” you
•The whispers and shouting from the Holy Spirit to connect more with your faith

Stress & Working Too Much

Have you decided that you are no longer willing to pay the toll of personal sacrifices to get ahead? Are you ready to break the cycle? Find a better way to feel and live? Discover greater work-life harmony? You can break the cycle of chronic busyness, rushing, and doing too much. Part of the stress recovery journey starts with building awareness of WHY & HOW.

Today - I am focusing on my social perspective of why you and others are so stressed and overworked. (Other articles focus more on relational or physiological reasons for stress.)

More than Just Work Environment and Corporate Culture

The work environment gets alot of flack for being the cause of stress and overwork. Ongoing global competition and supply chain challenges have led to trends of doing more with less. There is a lot of pressure on leaders to up the team's productivity & efficiency. Also, many leaders translate 24/7 global operations to mean that their team needs to be working those hours as well. Certain companies are more toxic than others, yet there are still many places that recognize that people are the most valuable resource that they have. Even if it is in pockets of divisions and departments within larger organizations. Personally, I've seen executives exited for consistently treating people poorly. When retention tanks, companies suffer so there is a limit to how far an organization can push its employees.

As you look around at work, I'm positive you can count on your fingers several colleagues who are not as stressed or work as many hours as you. This means it is not just the work environment. There are other influences.

Before I get to my belief - let's step back and look at work from a wider and more historical lens.

Biblical Perspective

In Genesis, God initially created the nature of work to be good and its purpose is love. As a result of Adam & Eve's exercise of free-will instead of obedience to God, working is supposed to be hard and painful. (Genesis 3: 17-19 (NIV)) As we shift from centuries of mainly hard physical work to being knowledge workers, working is still difficult - just the types of activities that we toil at and how the pain manifests. It's more than physical strain.

Throughout Proverbs there are plenty of verses about work - warning us not to be lazy or foolish and that work is a duty & responsibility. If your childhood was like mine, the Christian value of hard work was strongly reinforced. You and I grew up expecting that we would be challenged and would need to grow our Christian character. Over the years, we developed the discipline and perseverance to be successful. Work is an act of love so we can ensure our loved ones are well provided more than being minimally fed, clothed, and sheltered at a survival level. (The tasks may look a little different between men and women - but the root is the same). We accepted and adopted all of these moral virtues from childhood and are role models of these at work and in the community.

Yet, these beliefs and values do not explain the modern problems of chronic stress and working too much. People have been working with this value system for thousands of years, but chronic stress and stress-related disease levels are at epic levels in this era.

Our relationship with work gets distorted because of how all the external pressures of modern culture subconsciously influence our desires, including status, identity, control, and approval. Like the lies and temptation in Eden, the messaging and environment influence our exercise free-will.

Modern American Culture

Being drained is NOT the natural price of duty & responsibility, and being dedicated to work and family. They are a sign that change is needed. God; your loved ones; and your body, mind, and spirit are inviting you to protest the pace, isolation, and pain of modern life and societal convention.

I believe there’s more to what you are feeling than whatever is occurring at your work or within your employer’s workplace culture of doing more with less. Modern life is designed to wear us down, leaving us drained and depleted, separating us from our holistic selves, each other, and our Creator. Societal norms, fear-based messaging, and the pressure to conform can drain our energy and leave us feeling unfulfilled and isolated. It is socially acceptable and encouraged to work long hours, strive for more prestige, and never have enough material gain or security. The chaos of daily life and secular societal pressures can make it challenging to sense that there is something greater. Within this environment, natural feelings of duty and responsibility get twisted and corrupted so that suppression of faith and insane sacrifices of health, family, and self are viewed as normal.

Lately, It Seems the Cultural Pressure is Even Higher

And in the last few years, it seems like all of this intensity and strain has become worse. Covid shook the world up – intensifying the chaos & instability. Global economic instability makes people feel less secure and more fearful of what happens if a job is lost. There is increasing pressure for people to be less reliant on themselves and more on the government. (You will never be one of those!) With opportunities reducing and so many people opting out - the pressure is more on those who are strong, successful contributing members of society.

There are open attacks on traditional family values & personal freedom. In some work environments, it is no longer safe to be known as someone with traditional Christian and American values. Increasingly people are becoming more aware of gross inequities, oppression, and criminal practices going on at a global level. On some days it seems like the world has gone mad. To me, this is clear evidence that some forces want us compliant, weak, and lost in worldly desires and temptations!

No wonder you are stressed, drained, overcommitted to work, and feeling the way you are!

Prayer and Journal

With this perspective, how is society influencing you to work so many hours and to stress so much?

Specifically, what is influencing your desires related to work, including status, identity, control, and approval? How have these temptations been more valuable than your health & relationships?

Why do you think you work so hard?

As you review your responses from a Biblical perspective, what opportunities do you see for you to grow closer to God?

My hope for you...

It is time to make a shift for greater independence and to conform less to societal expectations! With the challenges you and your loved ones face in this modern world, you need to be healthy and resilient! It is time to double down on Faith, Family & Freedom in your own life! To have the energy for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!

Now that you have made the decision that you are ready to slow down and find more balance and harmony in your life, do you know what to do to take the first steps toward stress recovery?

Book a free consultation about how stress recovery can help you!

Not ready for a consultation, sign up for the newsletter to get updates on articles and other tips to reduce stress and improve work-life balance.

The post Why Am I So Overworked & Stressed? appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Rejoice Always! Pray Continually! Reduce Exhaustion & Stress with Breath Prayers!

Sharon McCall — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 01:25:21 +0000

Bible verse to inspire stress relief, food freedom, health & wellness

Rejoice Always, Pray Continually

1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 (NIV)

Example Breath Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.

Mark 10:47b (NIV)

When Trying to Do More, Where Is There Time for More Prayer?

The Bible reminds us that we should be rejoicing always and praying continually, but when you are striving to do more and to serve others how do you make this happen? In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it’s too easy to feel disconnected or feel guilty for not making enough time for prayer. Breath prayer is a way to quickly and easily connect with God. It is also a great micro break to stop the spin of racing thoughts and negativity. Like any meditation or breathwork technique, it triggers a relaxation response that helps to break tension and the stress response.

What Is Breath Prayer?

Admittedly, breath prayer can be a bit controversial. Some Christians think breath prayer is too close to Eastern meditation techniques. Others believe breath prayer has been around at least since 3^rd century as part of Christian practices. It’s on the premise that not everything Jesus taught the apostles and his disciples is included in the Bible (John 20:30) and it took time for practices to be in common enough use and be in literature that survived. This becomes a personal choice for you!

Learning the breath prayer usually starts with Mark 10:47. Pause and create a quiet space for yourself without distractions for a moment. Inhale as you think or say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” and as you exhale think or say “have mercy on me.”

It can be used with any of your favorite Bible verses. Something you can easily memorize or personalize.

Prayer and Journal

How do you feel currently about the amount of time you spend dedicated to your faith?

How can having more time rejoicing and praying help energize re-invigorate you more?

Try breath prayer for a day, how does that tactic feel for you? Is this something you are comfortable incorporating into your routines and survival tactics?

What Bible verse for stress, overwhelm, anxiety or worry would work for you to help maintain a connection with God and to help you maintain a positive growth mindset? As an example:

Personalized version of Psalm 94:19: Inhale (I throw all my anxiety onto God) HOLD Exhale (because He cares about me)

My hope for you...

Personally, in the years when I was not a Christian, I experimented with a lot of meditation practices. Breathwork and meditation have been cornerstones for my personal stress management practices. I am very comfortable with affirmations, mantras, breath prayer or any form of meditation that is based on love, relationship with God and being filled with Holy Spirit. I know the internal shift that has occurred with taking a Christian approach as I use these tools versus seeking Emptiness or Universal connection. (This may be useful if you are curious about the distinctions.)

If you are not comfortable with breath prayer, it is okay. We are all different. Is there something else that you can do to get yourself a micro-break with prayer or Bible verses?

I hope that these words (or what you experience through doing this as a practical and journaling exercise) can serve to inspire and energize changes your life to rekieve stress and improve work-life harmony. God is with you through it all and loves you, even if you are feeling alone and separated from Him by the situations and circumstances in your life. Clearing exhaustion and the physical and mental stress that contributes to this feeling of distance, allows you to thrive and flourish.

If you are feeling a significant disruption of thoughts, moods, behaviors, or ability to relate to others and it is consistently impacting multiple areas of your life, I encourage you to seek treatment or intervention. There are resources and Christian counselors that can help.

Sometimes it takes more than just a decision and a post it note to implement a regular practice like breath prayer. Here's a free guide to building faith-driven tiny habits that stick to help you get started. Seconds at a time breath prayer reduces stress while improving overall physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

The post Rejoice Always! Pray Continually! Reduce Exhaustion & Stress with Breath Prayers! appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Tense & Stuck? Breathe Deep! Breathe in Spirit of God!

Sharon McCall — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 01:16:41 +0000

God's Natural Rhythm - Breathing

Breathing! Yes, we do it all day every day. Unfortunately, many people have picked up unconscious habits of breathing shallowly, in the upper part of the rib cage, because they hold their stomach muscles tense. Did you know that this is one of the ways that God gave us to quickly calm and soothe ourselves?

Intentionally changing our breathing and impacts how our nervous system is responding. Need a 30 second way to break strain and tension to find peace & calm and boost energy naturally … deep breathing is it! Want to trigger anxiety, fast shallow breathing is it! (Just kidding, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to trigger anxiety and are looking for solutions!)

Relieve Stress, Anxiety, or Worry with Deep Breathing Techniques

Run a simple test … pause and note how you are physically feeling and what your thoughts are like. Set a timer for 30 seconds and really quickly inhale and exhale – try and go as fast as possible. What do you notice - shortness of breath, fuzzy thinking? Let your breath go back to normal. Pause and check in again. Now inhale as slowly and deeply as possible and slowly exhale as slowly and deeply as possible. Notice the difference – calm, less tension, more focused?

When stress, overwhelm, anxiety or worry surface, our breathing gets even shallower and feeds physical tension and strain. This can lead to health problems, including high blood pressure. Consciously, manipulating our breath can stop the physical stress response occurring in the body and induce relaxation.

Even the FDA recognizes that 15 minutes of deep breathing a day supports reduction of stress and blood pressure. Of course, the FDA wants industry to profit instead of using the techniques that God gave us to heal ourselves. To monitor that you are breathing right, there’s a medical device approved with these claims! There’s also plenty of other medical devices to teach deep breathing for asthma, COPD, physical performance. 5 – 15 minute breathing work out per day lowers blood pressure as much as exercise & drugs. Save yourself the money and don’t feed their profits! God gave us a free method – the breath in our nostrils!

Given how busy and hectic you are, maybe you are not ready to set aside 5 to 15 minutes a day, so just give it a try with micro-breaks. It will still make a difference.

Different Techniques to Recharge & Unwind …

In case if you have not focused on your breath before, here are a few tips & techniques.

Introduction to Basic Deep Breathing Exercise

Observe how you are breathing now - place a hand on your belly and on your chest. Are you mainly breathing in your chest? How much are you engaging your diaphragm to move the belly? The following will get you practicing moving your diaphragm more. Besides being relaxing, there are some bonus benefits with this style of breathing as it gently massages the colon stomach, helping to reduce digestive issues.

Here are the instructions:

Slowly breathe in through the nose for at least 3 seconds. As you fill your lungs, your diaphragm pushes down on your abdominal organs making your belly area expand. Keep filling you lungs until you feel air to the top of your chest and your chest rises.
Hold for a second.
Slow exhale out through the mouth for at least 3 seconds. Belly goes back to normal as diaphragm contracts. Chest falls as air is expelled.
The slower you can cycle the more relaxation you can experience. Don’t slow it down to the point that you feel physical tension or constriction building anywhere in the body. Keep flow and relaxed muscles.

Being able to stop the spiral of strain & tension, only takes a few seconds. Practice for longer periods to get greater health benefits.

This can be converted to a breath prayer with any Bible verse or prayer. Since you are super stressed out, I suggest the Serenity Prayer; it's got a lot of meaning and so has much broader application than just for people in recovery from addiction.

Training

There are multiple breathing “workouts” to help train and allow you to deepen your breathing and deepen your relaxation. As you experienced in the little experiment a moment ago, varying the rhythm and depth of your breathing can get different results. Here are two popular variants that include counting which can help slow spinning, negative thoughts and recover focus.

4-7-8

Inhale for 4 count.
Hold Breath for 7 count.
Exhale for 8 count.
Repeat no more than 4 times to avoid getting light headed.
To make this work as a breath prayer, I find Psalm 46:10 works well.
- Inhale - God says, "Be Still
- Hold as listen for Holy Spirit
- Exhale - "know that I am God; I will be exalted"

Box

Inhale for 4 count
Hold breath for 4 count
Exhale for 4 count
Hold for 4 count
Repeat until you feel calmer.
As this gets easy, train yourself with longer counts.
To make this work as a breath prayer, instead of focusing on counting, I suggest reciting the Lord's Prayer where each line is an inhale or exhale and the hold is just a pause after each line to let it sink into your heart.

Variations

Breath exercises can be combined with other activities to get you into a deeper relaxation response. For example, all of these can be used with breath prayer as noted above. When there’s physical tension, my favorite is to wiggle or shake it out from toes to nose. Others like progressive muscle relaxation where each muscle group is tightened for 2-3 seconds and then relaxed going from toes to face. Or self-massage wherever there is specific area of tension, like the neck or shoulders

When anxiety and worry are in full swing, taking a moment for a gratitude exercise using HeartMath’s technique is really uplifting.

Focus your attention in the area of your heart. Imagine your breath flowing in and out of your heart, as you breathe deeply.
Focus on a positive emotion or strong memory that has a lot of feelings behind it (love, gratitude, kindness, care, compassion, joy, etc). This stimulates additional neurochemicals to offset the strain and stress than just breathing alone.
Optional, include a prayer of gratitude and praise to God.
You want to fan and encourage the positive emotions until you feel recharged and free.

Experiment for Yourself

You are bio individual! Only you and God knows what the right break pattern and activities are for you. Play with some of these ideas or use these to seed some brainstorming of your own. Try some of these tactics for yourself for a week. Try a mixture of these for a week with different durations. See what appeals to you and quickly transforms stress, overwhelm and anxiety to relaxation.

I am confident that you will feel more energy and be able to enjoy more of your day. You’ll also find yourself more productive, creative, or strategic than when you skip breaks.

My hope for you...

Doing too much and feeling not enough can leave you little time for self-care. Yet, finding just a few minutes for deep breathing a few times a day will energize and restore your zest and vibrancy. Deep breathing is a great coping skill to use when you feel tension and strain rising - just pause and feel yourself recharge and unwind a few moments later.

I hope that these words can serve to inspire and energize changes in lifestyle that help you reduce stress & improve work-life balance. God intends for you to thrive & flourish.

Do you want to include a daily habit of prayer or breathwork in your day? Sometimes you need a little help to find some time in your crazy busy day. Here's a free guide to implementing faith-driven tiny habits. You can start wit just seconds a day and slowly increase your time, which leads to long term transformation. Begin to relieve stress and improve work-life balance today.

The post Tense & Stuck? Breathe Deep! Breathe in Spirit of God! appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Energy & Stress Benefit from God’s Natural Rhythms – Rest & Action Cycle!

Sharon McCall — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:54:47 +0000

Mid-Afternoon Crash?

Regularly, do you find yourself tired and wired by the end of the day? Finding that the 5^th, 8^th, 10^th or 12^th hour of the day is not as effective as the first few hours? Exhausted from spending an enormous amount of time and effort getting everything done? Beyond time & energy, there are costs to working continuously without sufficient breaks. Boost energy naturally & be more productive, creative, focused and strategic by taking regular breaks. Add this to your arsenal of coping strategies for stress, anxiety or worry.

Ways to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, or Worry with Action-Rest Cycle

What's Going On In The Body

Just like there are cycles in sleep from light to deep sleep, we have a natural ebb and flow of energy during the day. These cycles of action-rest every couple of hours are important for our physical, mental and emotional health. This cycle is called ultradian rhythm. OSHA and the military built their task rotation and break recommendations around the data on these rhythms. Going more than 4 hours without a break leads to sharp declines in physical and cognitive ability. Taking these breaks when the body signals one is needed, boosts energy naturally and relieves stress, anxiety or worry.

God designed our bodies to require time throughout the day for energy production, output and recovery. These are like circadian rhythms around light / dark and wake / sleep, but a shorter period of time.

Intense physical or mental activities burn a significant amount of energy. There’s a peak period of about 90 min – 2 hours. Then there’s a decline as your body has built up metabolic waste products and needs more fuel. You probably experience this as feeling unfocused, distracted, tired, start feeling a bit more irritable or lose some hand/eye coordination. Your body starts sending you signals it needs something – restroom, sugar, carbs, caffeine, movement, or some other change in activity. This is normal! Your body needs some time for recovery – cellular repair & detox, brain processing, rebalancing systems, tissue repair.

If you give your body approximately 20 minutes in a more restful, less intense, and different physical and mental activity, the body is able to get all of that done and to re-energize you. Fully ready to go, you can go back into another 90 min – 2 hours of peak intensity, highly productive, creative, and focused work.

When You Try To Control & Ignore

Yet as someone that is always doing too much or feeling that there’s never enough, I’m confident that you hear an inner voice saying things like,

“I need to push through and get this done!”
“I don’t have time. My next meeting started already and I’m late.”
“How can I be tired now, the day just started?”
“Let me grab just another caffeinated beverage (sugar or high carb snack) and keep chugging away.”

You ignore the signals and keep plowing through to get stuff done. Maybe you take 5 minutes to walk around, use the restroom and replenish caffeine and snacks. This gets you an eensy-weensy bit of energy recovery.

Without recovery, your physical and mental capabilities sharply deteriorate. Continuing to ignore needs and properly replenish, you will be exhausted and no amount of caffeine will help. This is what I call TIRED & WIRED.

I just can’t describe it any better than Pilar Gerasimo:

“In other words, as we skip ultradian rhythm breaks, we get diminishing returns and escalating risks on every level. And the more ultradian rhythm breaks we skip, the worse the damage becomes. That’s why, by the end of the day, so many people are husks of their former selves, walking bundles of deadened and frayed nerves. It’s why so many people get home from a hard day’s work only to fall on the couch in a heap, devour a bunch of unhealthy food, have multiple alcoholic drinks, or wind up in peevish exchanges with their loved ones.”

Long Term Impact

As you can probably imagine, long term all of this adds to the physical stress that the body is under. It’s like driving a car every day and never putting more than a quarter tank of gasoline or other fluids in it. One day the car will fail, because you are running it too close to the edge.

While you may not recognize this as part of stress because you are enthusiastic and deeply involved in what you are doing. The body and mind feel the lack of rest and maintenance time as STRESS. It’s as if you were physically threatened and the body starts going into stress response to focus just on survival systems.

This is a snowball headed toward Hell. Too many hours working. Mental stress from anxiety & worry. Physical stress from not enough rest during the day or sleep at night; overstraining the liver with caffeine, sugar and alcohol; poor quality food and eating habits; and insufficient movement. Relational stress from being too exhausted for God or loved ones…. Without breaking this cycle - illness, breakdown are likely. 1 2 3

A Tip to Recharge & Unwind … Take Breaks

Coping Strategies for Stress, Anxiety and Worry

I hope by this point, I’ve convinced you of the importance of breaks. I can hear the questions coming … the loudest one being but at work I can’t take a 15-20 minute break every 2 hours!

Here are a few scheduling type of suggestions based on the assumption that you use a diverse array of skills and capabilities throughout the work day.

Vary tasks by skill requirements

Similar to the concept of task rotation for physical labor to use different muscle groups to prevent fatigue and injury, set your workplan for the day based on your strengths and skills. For an introvert, intentionally schedule a task that requires a lot of relational and social skills, then plan for some quiet, analytical or creative work to follow that helps to restore energy. Or vice versa for the extrovert.

Where you can start your day with an intense activity like writing a report, then do some filing for a bit or other less intense task before going back to the same or another intense activity.

Upgrade your snacking

Plan for better-for-you snacks and select something that will nourish & replenish your energy. And actually take the few minutes to enjoy it!! (Interested in escaping the snack pack and picking better for you options, here's a free guide!)

Don’t just graze and eat mindlessly whatever is available & convenient
Minimize 100 calorie packs or convenience single serve snacks are highly processed, full of empty carbs and inflammatory seed oils
Choose whole foods like fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, nuts, seeds – something with protein, healthy fats and fiber. It will satisfy and give better building blocks to restore energy.
Saying grace & enjoying it slowly with sensory awareness, helps you relax and improves digestion.

Lunch break for rest & digest

Actually, take lunch for yourself and fuel yourself with a nutrient dense meal made of clean, real ingredients. Something more satisfying and sustainable than sugar, caffeine, empty carbs and seed oils.

Not a multi-tasking lunch while you are doing a ton of other things. It improves the effectiveness of your digestion.
This is particularly needed if you only took a 5 minute break in the morning. Use this time to really recharge for the afternoon so you can be at peak performance.

Multi-tasking to benefit yourself

While I advise against multi-tasking when you are trying to accomplish focused work and maximize productive, there are times when you can do something that helps you reduce stress & restore energy

Take advantage of meetings where you can go off camera and you are mainly listening - stretch, stand up, move around.
If you are taking a phone call that doesn't need note-taking, go for a walk and get some fresh air.
Take notes in a more creative format. Mind mapping allows for more connections to be seen since you are breaking away from linear bullets. Doodling is still a time honored way to emphasis key points to revisit in your notes.
Listen to music as you do some low mental effort work like filing or transcribing
- Sing and dance a bit to re-energize
- Calmer music can soothe stress
If music is too distracting or inappropriate, low volume bi-naural beats on your headphones might be an alternative to help unwind or to encourage singleminded focus

Set boundaries

If you’ve gotten into the habit of accepting work that requires 12 to 14 hours a day to stay on top of projects. See where you can delegate or get back to a more reasonable load, where you can make time to care for yourself. If you love what you are doing and you and your loved ones are truly okay with 12 plus hour work days, make sure you include breaks for peak performance.

Micro-breaks

Habits are hard to break. When you don’t feel like you can get a 15-20 minute break, increase the number of micro-breaks that you take. These are 1-5 minute short duration activities to stretch, move, text, say a prayer or call a loved one just to break up all the sitting that can occur at work. These small actions can lead to better habits over time.

Experiment for Yourself

You are bio individual! Only you and God knows what the right break pattern and activities are for you. Play with some of these ideas or use these to seed some brainstorming of your own. Try some of these tactics for yourself for a week. See what makes a difference and works for you. I am confident that you will feel more energy and be able to enjoy more of your day. You’ll also find yourself more productive, creative, or strategic than when you skip breaks.

My hope for you...

Doing too much and feeling not enough can leave you little time for self-care. Yet, finding just a few minutes for a restful break a few times a day will energize and restore your zest and vibrancy. Rest is precious and critical to nourishing body, mind and spirit. Finding your bio individual balance, will make a significant difference on the amount of energy you enjoy through the day.

I pray you can find some relief from the daily tired & wired by breaking the cycle with one or two small changes in your working habits. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see how each tiny habit can blossom over time and restore your energy. Investing in your self-care allows you to do so much more at work and home. As you break the cycle of exhaustion and stress, you also begin to impact your disease risk factors.

Please share any feedback you have in the comments below.

Interested in this approach and want to learn more about how you can go deeper into using your existing time management skills to help you improve your work-life harmony and reducing your stress? Book a free consultation.

The post Energy & Stress Benefit from God’s Natural Rhythms – Rest & Action Cycle! appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

When Negative Self-Talk Pursues & Attacks You, God’s Mercy Soothes Stress

Sharon McCall — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:16:35 +0000

Bible verse to inspire stress relief, food freedom, health & wellness

Be merciful to me, my God,
for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
all day long they press their attack.
My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

All day long they twist my words;
all their schemes are for my ruin.

Psalm 56:1-5 (NIV)

In Regards to Racing, Negative Thoughts...

As you are going about your busy day, there can come a time when clear & focused thinking becomes racing, negative thoughts. Maybe it’s the inner critic piping up with shoulda, coulda, woulda. Or it’s the inner worrier that suddenly feels tied down with all the things that could go wrong. It could be the inner perfectionist that paralyzes your forward movement because your accomplishments are not good enough. There are so many different aspects that come together to make each of us a unique self.

When these feelings and thoughts arise, it triggers a stress response – body moves into survival mode (fight, flight, freeze or fawn). The body does not know the difference between physical threat or a mental perception of not enough resources.

At times these different views and this stress response can be helpful, helping us to improve or to keep us safe. Some of the messages could be from Holy Spirit encouraging us to grow. Sometimes they are not, but are feelings, gradations and whispers of shame, guilt, pride, loneliness that take us further from God instead of closer.

When you notice a mental flurry of negative self-talk, you want to PAUSE and BE PRESENT. Slow down your thoughts, calm and refocus. Usually this is most easily accomplished with physical relaxation techniques like deep breathing. Acknowledge your feelings & open your heart. INVITE PRESENCE. Pray and reach out to God. Find out how this situation is growing you and ask for Him to shine light and transform any lies you’ve told yourself, and to protect and guide you to grow with grace & grit. Using faith to build effective coping skills, magnifies the effectiveness of the typical secular approaches to stop negative self-talk.

Learning How to Be Enough & Have Enough

In my journey, for years I tried just the first two steps. It was not sustainable and I was not able to transform and reframe my self-concept consistently. I was only able to start effectively and sustainably transforming my thoughts when I returned to Christianity and started rebuilding my relationship with Jesus. For me, I needed God to be effective at breaking the patterns of “not enough” and chronic stress. I could not keep fighting this myself.

Prayer and Journal

Read Psalm 56. What are the adversaries that pursue you and twist your words?

What patterns of attack do you notice when you experience racing, negative thoughts?

How can you benefit from praising and trusting God and asking for His mercy during these situations?

What are tactics you can use to ensure that you PAUSE, BE PRESENT & INVITE PRESENCE to stop negative thoughts?

My hope for you...

I pray that you can find more mental peace and calm. As you feel less stress, you will have more energy and focus to live a fulfilled life.

I hope that these words (or what you experience through doing this as a journaling exercise) can serve to inspire and energize changes that help you find improved work-life harmony and less stress.

Interested in other tips on how to boost your energy naturally & reduce stress? Check out these 8 ideas.

The post When Negative Self-Talk Pursues & Attacks You, God’s Mercy Soothes Stress appeared first on Whispering Fields Wellness.

Tips to Recharge & Unwind Archives - Whispering Fields Wellness

Grace Over Grind: Plan Ahead to Relieve Stress & Improve Work-Life Harmony

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Relieve Stress and Recharge in 3 Minutes: Simple Desk-Friendly Habits for Peace and Productivity

Do you ever feel like there’s no time to breathe between tasks?

The Beauty of God’s Design: Why Micro-Breaks Work

1. “How can I find time for breaks when my schedule is already packed?”

Tip: Start by pairing a micro-break with an existing routine.

2. “What can I do in just 2-3 minutes that will actually make a difference?”

Try This: Deep belly breathing for 2 minutes.

Or This: Wash stress off for 1 minute

3. “How do I remind myself to take a break?”

Ideas: Triggers, reminders, routines, boundaries

4. “Will my coworkers or boss think I’m slacking off?”

Suggestion: Reframe the Conversation

5. “What if taking breaks makes me feel more stressed because I’ll fall behind?”

Practical Solution: Start small

Quick and Powerful Micro-Breaks to Try at Your Desk

Deep Breathing:

Prayer Break:

Gratitude Pause:

Stretching:

Doodle or Color:

Hum or Sing:

Release Tension:

Quick Walk:

Laughter:

Connect with a Loved One:

Forgiveness Reframe:

Grace & Eating:

Outer Ear Rubbing:

God’s Design for Rhythms of Work and Rest

I pray...

Putting It Into Action: Build Tiny Habits for Big Change

Dread Taking Vacation? Maybe It’s Time to Rethink

Arrrghh!!!

Remember: Vacation is a benefit that has to be supported

Vacation for US Employees

Friendly vacation accrual policies

But this is not the case everywhere

Why aren't people taking vacation?

Have you challenged your thinking?

God’s Natural Rhythm – Seasonal Celebrations (aka in the modern world vacations)

Keep it simple!

Reducing Vacation Stress

My hope for you...

Grace Over Grind: Why Are You Stressed & Working Too Much?

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Work-Life Harmony: Practice Sabbath, Reduce Stress & Stop Working Too Much

God's Natural Rhythm - Weekly Sabbath, Even He Rested!

I'd love to take a day off from work each week. But how??

Benefits of Practicing the Sabbath / Taking A Day of Rest

What the Bible Says About Sabbath

When You Try To Control & Ignore Natural Weekly Rhythm of Work & Rest

I'm SO Ready to Dedicate a Day for Faith, Family, & Freedom!

A Quick Pick List of Ideas to Try to Free Up Sundays from Work

Let Go & Let God!

Inboxes & To Do Lists Are Like Tides - Never Gone

Brain Dump

Make It About Everyone, Not Just You!

Power of Singular Focus

Treat the Weekend Like You Are on A Dream Vacation

Lock Away the Phone & Laptop

Developing a Personalized Plan

Scenario A: True Weekend Responsibilities

Scenario B: Too Much Work, Constantly in Catch Up Mode

Experiment for Yourself

My hope for you...

Why Am I So Overworked & Stressed?

Did I hear you say-

" I am SO DONE with the busy pace, exhaustion and frustration of "living" for work!"

Stress & Working Too Much

More than Just Work Environment and Corporate Culture

Biblical Perspective

Modern American Culture

Lately, It Seems the Cultural Pressure is Even Higher

No wonder you are stressed, drained, overcommitted to work, and feeling the way you are!

Prayer and Journal

My hope for you...

Rejoice Always! Pray Continually! Reduce Exhaustion & Stress with Breath Prayers!