Is it big enough to take everything you put in it?
Or is it overflowing? Dripping mess on to everything around it.
Obviously, I’m not talking about the builders bucket you use to wash the car. I mean your stress bucket.
When coaching my clients, I often talk about the stress bucket and how many factors add stress to it and what happens physically and mentally when it gets too full and starts to overflow.
Ultimately, something breaks. Which in turn makes you stop what you’re doing and take the issue more seriously.
Sometimes!
Us humans are masters of compensation and amazing and brushing off the signals to change what we’re doing or listen to our bodies.
I used to talk to my clients and members about reducing the stress on the system. That could be alcohol, exercise, relationships, work, poor food choices, sleep patterns, environment; the list is endless.
It also relies on there being control over some of these stressors. Unfortunately, in our modern world there are factors that we can’t control.
What we can control is how we respond to them.
By learning to respond to our stresses in a different way, we are simply making our buckets bigger.
The load doesn’t overflow then.
How do you make a bigger bucket?
It’s simple and like everything that has a simple solution takes discipline and effort.
I have wrote about it lots of times.
Every morning, I set my intentions for the day. I then work towards achieving them. They tie in to the intentions that I have set for the week; which tie in to the outcomes I have set for the month and the quarter.
I have a morning routine that includes focussed breathing and a cold shower, having a coffee and writing my intentions in my journal. I try to get up at the same time every morning to start my routine, these kids like to get up early though and often change my start time.
Every evening, I review my day and write down my three biggest wins.
My evening routine includes lying on a spiky mat, some breathing and reading fiction. I try to have a set time for lights out.
I meditate regularly.
The result is I have more control over my state and I’m less grumpy with the kids. I never used to need to do this. Sleep deprivation over 4 years means it is necessary for me to be me.
I didn’t get instant results, it took time and discipline to get traction. It is worth it though.
Start simple and write down 3 things from the day that made you smile and work from there.
Darren ‘bigger bucket builder’ Checkley
