Reduce Stress With This Unique Technique

by Karen S. Roberts

We all need to reduce stress.   

Why?  In many families each spouse is working a full-time job, and possibly a side hustle as well, to make ends meet financially. Or perhaps one spouse is homeschooling the children while the other works at least one job.  Things are even harder for the single parent trying to do the job of two parents.

Keeping house, doing yard work, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and raising a family are often relegated to off work hours. If our kids are active in sports, music lessons, drama, youth group, or other activities, we may be running them all over the place. Life can become very hectic and stressful.

Many people don’t clock out at the end of the workday. Instead, they take their work home and are reachable at all hours via text message or email. Add to that the stress caused by constant personal texting and social media activity, and it’s no wonder we’re more stressed than ever.

When asked, the majority of people in the western culture will say they are stressed out.  That’s why it’s important to know how to reduce stress with God’s help.

Busy schedules may disconnect us from God.

At the end of the day, we may realize that we never spent any quiet time with God.  And our schedule has exhausted us so much that we just want to zone out and watch TV or read for a little while before bedtime. When our spiritual life is neglected, stress mounts.  We need the refreshment, guidance, and strength that flows from prayer and time spent in God’s Word.  Starving ourselves spiritually and feeling guilty about our lack of time with God can add to our stress levels.

It’s time to do something about stress.

 

Here is a unique technique.

It’s time to stop trying to do all the things all the time and to focus on reducing stress in your life. Start by reviewing everything you do in a day. A great tool for this is a time log. For a week, keep a simple piece of paper or a small notebook with you at all times. Set an alert on your phone to go off every 30 minutes (during waking hours). Every time the alarm goes off, quickly jot down what you’re doing. Be brutally honest. No one else needs to see this log, and you can destroy it after you’ve had time to analyze it. After a week of logging, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how you spend your time and mental energy.

Then comes the interesting part.

Look through your notes and decide what you can let go of. Pray for the Lord’s direction.  What can you stop doing or change how you do it?  Brainstorm with your  family members and write down the ideas. It could be that the kids are feeling stressed because they are too busy or because they sense that you are stressed out.  This could turn into an interesting and revealing discussion.

Analyze causes of your stress and what you can change.

Are you trying to be perfect with your housekeeping, gardening, and decorating?  How can you loosen up on what you are requiring for yourself?  Can you schedule a family housecleaning time every Saturday so that you don’t have to try to do it all on your own?  Working together makes everything go quicker and can be fun.

What boundaries do you need to set for your time?  Are there ways to manage your time better?  Do you need to tell your boss, coworkers, or clients that you will not be available in the evening?  Can you cut back on social media time and turn off your work phone?

Can you arrange carpooling with other families who are taking their kids to activities and share turns to give rides?  Do you really have to attend every game that your child plays in sports?  Can you pick one busy evening a week when you will order a restaurant dinner delivery so that you don’t have to cook or wash dishes that night?

Open up some scheduled time for yourself to exercise, meditate on the word of God, pray, etc.  Possibly you could take a daily walk and memorize Scripture at the same time. Perhaps you can pray or listen to recorded Scripture as you drive to and from work. As you allow God to speak to you daily, you’ll have wisdom about how to use your time.

You might also need to schedule in a daily 20-minute power nap as well to get refreshed.  You’ll be more productive in the things you do if you  take that time to rest your body and mind. (In fact, half way through writing this article, I took a nap so that I could focus better on it.)

Here are productive steps to take next.

Next it’s time to review and release all those worries, questions, and “should-dos” that are stressing you out. Get out a sheet of paper and write down anything and everything on your mind. All the stuff you’ve been thinking about doing.  All the things that have been worrying you. Get it all out.

Walk away for a few hours and then come back to your list. Cross out as much as you can.  Cross off tasks that you feel you should do, but that you really don’t need to do.  For instance, do you really need to bake 5 batches of cookies?  How about baking just one?

If you are having trouble crossing things off the list, ask God to show you your motivation for feeling that you need to do all these things.  You don’t have to be a super star, trying to prove to everyone that you can juggle everything on a long list.  Ask the Lord to help you set priorities.

You can decide to mentally release things that are out of your control. Place them in God’s hands and leave them there. Remember the instructions in 1 Peter 5:7, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”  God is concerned about everything that concerns you.

Here’s what to do with that list…

Now rewrite what’s left onto two different lists. One will be things you can do, or have someone else do for you. List who in the family will be doing any of the tasks that they can help with next to what they will be doing.

The second is a list of worries or concerns. Use that list as part of your prayer list each day.  Turn them over to Jesus as you pray.

Notice how much smaller and shorter those lists are and how much lighter you feel just getting it all out of your head.  Just getting these things down on paper and crossing some thing off will reduce your stress level.

Last but not least, destroy that master brain dump list. Doesn’t that feel good?