The Body Knows

A few years ago I was in the throes of burn out.

I’ve written a bit about it in some of my older blogs, you can check them out here and here. And while I’m proud to say I’ve put in a lot of work and am feeling (mostly) like I’m on the other side of things I definitely notice how quickly my body can slide into a state of stress.

You know that saying “it’s like riding a bike”? Well, it seems that my body takes that approach when it comes to stressful events and no matter the size of the ‘issue’ my stress response can be quite intense. 

Because my body spent so much time in a state of heightened stress it’s really good at going there, even when it’s uncalled for. And over the last few days I’ve been noticing how quickly this can happen for me. 

Being in the peak of tourism season my brain is often going a million miles a minute. Even on my days off it can take a while before my body and my mind catch up and realize we can slow down and breathe. Unfortunately they don’t understand the meaning of out of office. 

I had two days off in a row last week - what a treat! This was something I specifically planned in my schedule because I find just one day never gets me to the point of actually relaxing before it is time to go back to work. This was something I was really looking forward to and the weather was really nice for the second day so I was excited for some chill time at the beach with Dave. 

We had barely arrived and set up when I got a call from my brother (who is also my business partner) about the upcoming week. He was about to head into his days off and wanted to connect because we had some poor weather coming and concerns about the tide levels. Long story short, between those two things we are cancelling 8 time slots for this week which has a significant impact on business (approximately 25% of the week’s revenue gone).

Sitting on the beach I went from totally relaxed to extremely stressed in what felt like seconds. 

My heart was racing, my head was spinning with all the things I would need to do, and I felt like I couldn’t sit still. I felt like I needed to just leave the beach right then and start taking action. I didn’t think I would be able to settle down so I would be better off just leaving and taking care of business.

That’s how quick the stress response can take hold.

Luckily, from learning to listen to my body I was able to recognize that I was in fight mode of the Fight-Flight-Freeze response where I wanted to just confront the issues and handle them right away. But when I was able to stop for a moment I realized this wasn’t actually an immediate threat for me. The first trip that was going to be impacted was 48 hours into the future. 

Once I stopped and thought about it, I realized that with that much runway I didn’t have to sacrifice my beach day for work. I could enjoy the time with Dave and our friends and then handle the phone calls and emails later, when I was back on the clock. And while my brain got there from a logical standpoint pretty quickly, my physical body needed a bit more time and coaxing that I was safe and ok. I sat and looked at the ocean while taking several deep breaths to help me bring myself back down to a calm state of mind. It took longer than I wanted it to but I got there. 

Sitting here a few days later, and mostly through all the phone calls and emails to reschedule people I am reflecting on how well I handled the stress. I definitely could have let it derail my day which really would have led into several days. But instead I was able to practice things that I’ve been learning and make them work for me. 

Stressful situations are always going to be a part of life. 

Learning how to recognize the impacts they are having and then being able to determine what is a true, immediate threat (most often this isn’t the case) and then responding accordingly is a skill that takes time, patience and practice. I hope that over time my body starts to forget how to go from 0 to 100 in terms of physical stress response but until then I will keep practicing these skills and trusting myself that I can handle anything that comes my way.

If you’re feeling some strong stress responses these days, I see you. Take what you need and give yourself the space to take care of you. And if you need someone to chat with, reach out!

Until next time,

Julie Ann