Grace Over Grind: Mentally Strong – Build Wellness Toolbox to Relieve Stress & Improve Work-Life Balance

[00:00:00] Hello, I'm Sharon McCall with Whispering Fields Wellness. Today in Grace Over Grind, I'll address the importance of holistic wellness, reduced stress, and improved work life balance. We're going to really focus on the mind part of body, mind, and spirit today, which is emotion, intellect, those areas of lifestyle, and mental health.

[00:00:22] Lord, thank you for bringing my dear friend to listen today. Please help them find the motivation, guidance, strategies, and tactics to reduce stress and improve work life harmony. As we talk about emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and mental health today, may they find an opportunity for personal application.

[00:00:41] So many people who struggle with stress and are chained to the desk by work live most of their lives in their heads. Christ, help ensure our minds are a healthy, supportive growth environment. Let us see through the lies of the deceiver who wants us to be helpless, unloved, and unworthy and to believe that we have to get through the pains of life and suffering alone.

[00:01:02] Let us see through the illusion and recognize that believing the devil's lies has contributed to chronic stress and overwork. Believing these lies, the devil is literally devouring our time, energy, joy, and health. It is making us sick and separating us from God. God, with Holy Spirit, open our eyes, ears, and heart to know the truth.

[00:01:21] Through you, we are strong, loved, worthy, and never alone. So long as we keep coming back to you, there is nothing we can do that makes us unworthy of your love. And recognize that life is richer than just our thoughts. I pray all is well with every listener. Healthy in body, renewed in mind, and strong in spirit.

[00:01:40] May they know your will and your love as they grow greater in Christian character. In Jesus name, Amen. God designed us as holistic beings, body, mind, and spirit. As Christians with the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, we are called to become more Christ like. I'm not God, but I bet that a life where career has gained primacy at the expense of health and relationships is probably not what God intended for you.

[00:02:05] Looking at modern American life, the noise and pressure to focus on more, being more, doing more, striving for more, have twisted a natural inclination to work and support our loved ones into overwork. Stress filled, hectic, 55 plus hour workweeks squeeze out time for meaningful connections and drain energy for important areas of life.

[00:02:25] Today, we're going to focus more on the mind part of our being. I'll cover how you can reduce stress and improve work life harmony by focusing on increasing satisfaction in emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and how they impact mental health. I'll close with a simple assessment exercise for you to work through so you can more clearly identify what changes can be most impactful for you.

[00:02:56] As we work through these dimensions of wellness, emotional and intellectual are just two of the eight dimensions that we'll be covering in this series over the next several months. As you saw last time we discussed wellness toolbox, when it comes down to it, the concept of multi dimensional well being is pretty straightforward.

[00:03:14] Everyone has a concept of what each dimension means for them. Today, I'll go over some quick considerations on both emotional and intellectual dimensions so that we're all on the same page. So emotional. This is all about coping effectively with life, no matter what happens to you, and being able to enjoy life.

[00:03:34] It's about creating satisfying relationships with yourself and others, being aware of and listening to your feelings, not suppressing them, expressing your feelings to people you trust, being involved in activities that bring you joy, peace, calm, happiness, enthusiasm. It's about activities to For personal development and maintaining a balanced and realistic self image.

[00:03:59] Empathy and emotional intelligence skills are also part of this dimension. As you're thinking about what you might be adding to your lifestyle to make it more fulfilling and enriching, some different areas to explore to increase emotional satisfaction and well being are your personal interest for leisure and relaxation, self care, some type of self awareness or reflection activity.

[00:04:25] And having good support. So moving on to the intellectual area. This is all about recognizing your creative abilities and finding outlets that stimulate your mind and allow for creative expression. Engaging your imagination and finding your sense of play or humor. You want to be able to expand your knowledge and skills through continuous learning and development.

[00:04:49] Encouraging a sense of curiosity and inquiry and then sharing what you learn. Thank you. Critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and decision making are all parts of this dimension. So, again, as you think about how you might want to enrich your life and being able to make it more fulfilling, if this is an area of well being that you want to work on, you can take a look at your personal interests, education opportunities, brain exercises, conversation, communication.

[00:05:18] Just when it comes to the intellectual area of wellness or of lifestyle, I'm pretty sure you're stimulated at work and you may end up focusing on this part of your life quite a bit. And you may be overall satisfied with it. There may be a couple of areas that you want to work on, such as in your creativity and being able to engage your imagination and play.

[00:05:38] You may want to think about it as what are activities that you can do instead of work that could end up stimulating this part of wellbeing. I want to encourage you to identify areas of your life that you feel that you've missed out on because of your commitments work. So this could be a hobby or being able to play and engage in fun activities with family and friends.

[00:06:02] So what is your current level of wellness and satisfaction in these areas of your life? Are these areas that as you seek more work life balance, that you seek to grow or strengthen? How can investing time and energy in these areas of your life help to reduce your stress and energize you more? If you think about it, expressing your creativity may be a great way to kind of reinvigorate yourself and to energize those parts of you that you've not had any time to do.

[00:06:29] On first pass, what are some of your initial thoughts on activities that you long to have time or energy for? These are ideas for your wellness toolbox so you can begin to collect stress management approaches. These can also be part of your habit building strategy or help refine what you're evaluating in your journaling as you're looking for areas of improvement.

[00:06:49] Moving on into more of the topic of mental health. Chronic stress impacts cognitive and emotional functioning. It also increases vulnerability to mental illness like anxiety and depression. If your pattern of overwork and stress puts you at a high risk of workaholism, this is a recognized process addiction.

[00:07:10] Note, I did put a link in the description for an evidence based assessment if you are concerned specifically about am I a workaholic. As a result, it is very important to support and monitor your mental health. You may not have a mental health disorder, but like physical health, you want a preventive approach so you can enjoy a fulfilling life.

[00:07:32] God designed our brain and nervous system with neuroplasticity, so that as we address our mental health, our brain and nervous system literally renews. Science has proven and caught up with what the Bible tells us, that growth and change result in a renewing of the mind. So keep in mind, mental health impacts physical health.

[00:07:54] The biochemistry of thoughts and emotions can take a toll on the body, just as much as an injury. This is not restricted to just brain health. Negative thoughts and emotions create an inflammatory cascade of biochemicals that can impact all body systems. Also, staying in stress response for long periods of time impacts multiple body systems because the body prioritizes fight and flight over rest and digest responses and repairs.

[00:08:22] If you experience stress, repeating patterns of thoughts and emotions for long periods, Or experience trauma. It changes your brain, gut, and possibly other parts of your body. Where it shows up in your body will be different for you than someone else. It all depends on your bio individually and what is the weakest point in your physical systems.

[00:08:46] We'll talk more about the physical side of this in a few weeks, but I wanted to call it out because of how related mental and physical health are. So before we move on, how do you assess your mental health? Have you observed if stress is wearing down your emotional and intellectual capability? Are you feeling brain fog, losing patience more easily than normal, less empathetic, just not feeling like yourself anymore and really want to get back to it?

[00:09:14] Just a few questions to consider in your assessment. Are you able to realize your abilities, learn well, think clearly? As you look at your patterns of thoughts, are you holding a more positive or a negative view? Are you viewing situations realistically or through the lens of a cognitive distortion? What is your attitude towards change?

[00:09:37] What is your attitude towards life's challenges? How well are acknowledging your emotions, dealing with them in a healthy manner? Are you judging emotions, suppressing ones that are bad? What about being able to recognize and respond to the emotions of others? Emotions are not good or bad. It's what you do with them and how you express them.

[00:09:59] Anger lets you know when a boundary has been violated. Fear flags you to proceed with caution. When there's a loss, it makes sense that you feel sad. Feelings are like warning lights in the dashboard of your car. They help you know when to pay attention and where to look for challenges going on in your life.

[00:10:18] As discussed before, I firmly believe that change is most effective when it starts with acknowledging your real identity. By fully embracing your identity, your beliefs begin to gain greater alignment with who you are. As you change your beliefs, you can change your thoughts and behaviors. This comes back to the idea on the smoker.

[00:10:40] If you're trying to quit, you're striving not to smoke. That's different than saying, I am not a smoker. It's a very clear cut distinction. Once you embody that identity, your change in beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, they all follow suit. We've discussed this previously, but for me, it really gets back to recognizing God's plan for you.

[00:11:05] Well, to the best of your abilities that you understand it. If we anchor our identity in anything other than how he views us, we lose out. Say in society, other people have different and limited views of who we are. Similarly, if we are overly protective of the parts of us that were heard as a child, that has influenced how we form relationships, we're defining ourselves and reacting to new people and situations based upon how life and others have heard us before.

[00:11:34] If we allow any of these identities become primary, There is pain and struggle. In this fallen world, it is hard enough to fully live within God's will. There's no need to make it tougher by picking up any of these limiting beliefs or cognitive distortions. When I last discussed the wellness toolbox, I shared an exercise for you to recognize opportunities in your behaviors.

[00:11:56] On your worst day, an okay day, a good day, if you're acting as Christ role model for us, Last time we mainly focused on the spiritual and social dimensions of life. You can repeat this same exercise, focusing on the emotional and intellectual dimensions of life and well being. This is a great approach to help identify areas in which you want to build tiny habits or routines.

[00:12:21] Today, I'm going to introduce a different exercise, though, for you to envision what it means to thrive and flourish. This exercise is called Envisioning Holistic Wellness. Some scientists say that change is more successful when you have a clear vision of what you want, when you have the end in mind.

[00:12:37] Focusing only on what you want to achieve requires a lot of willpower motivation throughout the change process, though. On the other hand, other scientists recognize that there is a more sustainable change process when you focus on changing your identity and your beliefs and then the behaviors and the thoughts follow.

[00:12:59] This approach requires less willpower and motivation. There's a big difference between trying and striving to be something versus I am something. This exercise documents both viewpoints so you can incorporate either approach to change based upon what resonates most with you in each area of your life.

[00:13:20] So to do this, you want a sheet of paper, maybe two, depending on how you're approaching this, and two colored pens or pencils. On the blank sheet of paper, make three interlacing circles. Label one body, another mind, and the last spirit. In the first color of pen, go through and put anything you can think of in your life today that reflects your vision of work life harmony or comes to mind when you think about who you are as a Christian and what it means to you to thrive and flourish as God intends.

[00:13:50] Write down anything you are satisfied with in your life as it comes to overall well being. Capture strengths, beliefs, positive thought patterns, and behaviors, not just outcomes. So for example, You may have an outcome of Financially secure future you want to write out what underpins that belief for example that God provides or the behavior of Daily prayers of Thanksgiving for what God has provided and asking for what is needed for self and others You really want to make sure that you're looking at this all the way from identity belief thought and Behavior to outcome.

[00:14:32] And make sure that you're capturing those. So where the circles overlap, they can be used for anything that touches both categories. In the center, that is for anything that touches all three categories. And this is just to organize things and so don't get too stressed about it. Just fill it out the way that you intuitively feel is the best guidance.

[00:14:55] Now, in a different color of pen, go through and write down anything that is missing that you feel is an essential part of thriving and flourishing. What do you want to have as part of work life harmony that you don't have today? You want to write this as a positive statement, not a negative one. You want to answer, what do you want more of in your life?

[00:15:21] For example, less working hours is a negative frame, whereas a positive frame is playing ball with the kids, a monthly golf outing with friends, Friday date night, right from the perspective as if you were fully embodying your Christian identity statement that you picked the last time we discussed the wellness toolbox.

[00:15:40] Again, you want to get to the belief Behaviors, thought patterns and outcomes. If you're stuck and all you can think about is that negative statement on that second sheet of paper, write everything that you don't want in your life that's currently in your life. And as you figure out how to rewrite it in terms of what you want in life, then transfer it over to the circle.

[00:16:04] This is a great exercise to get really clear on what is important to you. It can easily be converted to a vision board or cutouts and pictures if that's something that feels good for you and is inspiring. If you're comfortable, share it with loved ones, get their input and some dialogue on. This is intended to be an inspiration and ongoing work in progress to help you identify the changes you want in your life.

[00:16:27] This can be applied in designing and building tiny habits. It also can be done to help you better narrow down what stressors you want to work on by including what is currently going on in your life. It also helps you maintain a positive growth mindset that helps to defeat any of the lies that may be running around in your mind that reflects cognitive bias or limiting belief.

[00:16:50] Any questions on this exercise, email them to Sharon@whisperingfieldwellness.com. Today we talked more about the mind part of our holistic being, mental health, and the activities that are part of the emotional and intellectual dimensions of lifestyle and wellness. As a parting thought, as Christians, true transformation lies in who we are in Christ.

[00:17:14] It begins when you acknowledge your weakness in this sinful material world, have the humility to let God restore you, and surrender your life and will to God's care. He'll give you strength and courage and lead you to grow your Christian character. He has plans for you and a purpose for you. And if I had to guess, it is not for your contributions to a company to be more important than your relationships, health, and well being.

[00:17:38] In the next episode, I'll discuss how to keep moving forward with your habit building after you've been disappointed by a few misses. I want to ensure you get the most out of these simple strategies and tools to help you reduce stress and improve work life harmony. So if you just want to jump right in, click the link to download my Habit Building Guide.

[00:17:58] It all starts with being clear on who you want to become and then proving it to yourself with small wins. Because the Lord prompted you with his wisdom on how to get closer to him, take small steps towards something you know is a better path. Or if this series and the downloads have you thinking that you want to work with me, click the services link below.

[00:18:18] As a Christian stress recovery coach, I'm here to help you explore more of what underlies your stress and imbalance and ensure that you have the motivation and accountability to make the changes you desire in your life. Only you and God know how to heal your stress. 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.