PUNTING THE PROCRASTINATION PIXIE

by Teri Kerr 

Mel Robbins, in her book “Take Control of your Life” says that procrastination is simply a stress management technique. When we get overwhelmed, our brains go to a place where we want to numb out and take a break – whether it’s by scrolling through social media, binging on Netflix, doing something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than we originally were supposed to be doing. What’s amazing is that once we realize what is actually going on, we have the power to take away the Pixie’s mallet.

Instead of beating ourselves up with negative self talk like “I’m lazy.” “I have no work ethic.” “I’m such a moron.” Or “I’m not good enough – How can I possibly do THAT (insert large exciting opportunity) when  I can’t even do THIS (insert simple task currently at hand)!” – we have the opportunity to switch it up. We can change that inner dialogue and say “Wow, this is overwhelming. I think I’ll set a timer/go for a walk/do some deep breathing/call a friend, and then step back up to the plate once I’ve calmed down at bit.”

In times of stress, it’s often difficult to realize what subliminal processes are going on in our brains. Learning to recognize tell tale signs of stress and creating an emergency action plan to reset our patterns can be a simple but transformational process. Here are three simple steps (ABC!) to punt the Procrastination Pixie:

• Acknowledge. Notice when you’re caught in a behaviour that’s not serving you. Are you numbing out more than usual? Your screen time stats have tripled? Falling farther into the lies of your inner critic? All of these are good indications that you may be procrastinating as a stress management technique. Take a step back and notice where your behaviour is veering you off track from who you really want to be, and what you really want to be doing.
• Body. Where in your body do you feel stress? Stomach? Shoulders? Between the eyes? For me, I feel like I stop breathing. Learning to equate that physical feeling as a prod to change things up will provide a chance to switch up the thought patterns that are keeping us stuck. 
• Calm. Once we have acknowledged our behaviours and noticed the feelings in our body, we have the opportunity to calm. Use a breathing technique like 4-7-8 or Box Breathing will calm your mind and body. Incorporating meditation or a simple mantra can also help. The key is in the choice to stop and reset. 

The Procrastination Fairy is a busy little sprite – but she also has your back. She’s keeping you safe – even though it often feels like her intentions are not good. Acknowledging her, listening to your body, and calming your mind will help create new patterns that will serve you better in the long run.

CHOOSE TO CHANGE YOUR MIND

by Tracey Purvis

But the issue with any and all of these techniques to help you manage your stress is that they focus on your behavior rather than on the thoughts leading to your behavior. Before behaviour, and before emotions and stress, are our thoughts. Absolutely everything we do, say, think, or feel is based on our thoughts, our context. Everything. And we build this context - our beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and our truth, throughout our lifetime, starting from when we are very young from our parents and caregivers.

The beautiful, powerful thing here is that we can change our context. Nobody can do that for us, but we have the absolute choice to examine our beliefs, opinions, and attitudes about our “stress”, make a context shift, and stop stressing. I may, for example, have an opinion that being ‘busy and productive’ is important, which causes me to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and under self-scrutiny and judgment leading to more stress. Oh, I could introduce meditation and other techniques to manage this stress, but until I reflect on my context and decide to shift this opinion, I am merely adding more ‘things to do’ to my productive to-do list. Make sense?

Looping all the way back to the thoughts, the context, that causes the response to stressors, enables us to truly and effectively manage stress. We can never completely eliminate stress from our lives, and the behaviour of stressing gets us nowhere, or even worse..... all the way to the wrong result. Stress management techniques have their place, don’t get me wrong, but the golden ticket to TRULY managing our stress is reflecting on our context, our beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and our truth.... and then choosing to shift that context.

BUILD YOUR STRESS MUSCLE

by David Fyfe

Our brains perceive threats everywhere and are keeping us in a chronic state of high alert.  With over 3/4 of the population stating that they are experiencing either the physical or psychological symptoms of stress and 1/3 feeling they live with extreme daily stress. I think it is safe to say that being “stressed” is the new baseline normal many of us deal with in our lives today.

Stress is a killer and is well accepted that chronic and extreme stress is a contributing factor to many physical and mental health issues. Being in a constant state of flight or fight is draining our precious energy and often our joy of life. Heart disease, cancer, body pain, sleeping issues, anxiety, and depression to name a few can in many cases be linked back to our stress-filled lifestyles.

So if we accept that stress is our new normal and it will kill us if we ignore it, what can we do to help ourselves in the new high-pressure environment we now find ourselves in? My suggestion is to invite more healthy stress into our lives and embrace stress as an opportunity for change. We can’t hide from it, so let’s make it work for us instead of against us.

When I think of using healthy stress to build up overall stress resilience, I see a comparison to physical exercise. At first, we cannot work out for long periods of time, we feel weak and out of breath, but as we do more, we become more adaptable, coordinated and our recovery time improves significantly. The body miraculously rebuilds our muscles stronger because we have broken them down with repeated and safe exercise.

The same is true for exposure to short term healthy stress in helping build your stress muscles. Short bursts of stress have been proven healthy for the mind and body, improving cognitive function, boosting immune systems, and even stimulating brain cell growth. We become hyper-focused when under stress, suddenly extremely creative, great at problem-solving, and tap into our vast inner resources. We enlist the healthy attributes of being under stress and use them to produce a positive outcome and our relationship with stress is firmly altered.

Here are some examples of activities associated with healthy or good stress:

Travel/Exploring, New Learning, Setting-challenging goals, Stimulating conversations, Challenging but realistic projects, Pursuing passions or hobbies, Exercise, Learning new skills, Public speaking, Learning a musical instrument, Art Projects, volunteering.

“Use it or lose it”, is a saying that often comes to mind when I think of challenging myself mentally and physically. Finding conscious ways to stretch my comfort zones, set new goals, try new activities, and interpret that nervous feeling in my gut as I am in the right place doing the right things at this moment.

I realize that during our current global pandemic we feel our freedom of choice has been taken away and our old normal routines are no longer available. I would challenge all of you to take our new situation as an invitation to find ways to alter your relationship with stress. By being aware that these built-in mechanisms are working for you (not against you) there is an opportunity to harness and consciously direct the dynamic energies created.  

We still have many choices, they just look and feel different than the choices we had 6 weeks ago. This is not the time to double down on bad habits and ride this out, it is time to dig deep and challenge ourselves to learn, lead, and grow. You got this!

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