The past two weeks it has felt like I can’t do a single thing right. Blunder after blunder. All little things that after awhile… start to feel like mighty big things. Traditionally, I have a personality type where I like to beat myself up over everything. Perfection has always been the name of the game. In recent years, however, and with the help of a therapist over at Talk Space I have become better at accepting these small errors. But, damn, these last two weeks have really put that new mindset to the test. I am still struggling each day with errors and as they add up I am noticing patterns that I need to break to hopefully get back to smoother days. (And overall smoother days means I can let the little things go.)

Stress Causes Forgetfulness
This is something I always like to highlight for my friends when they’re feeling particularly forgetful and currently I am trying to remind myself of this. Here’s a quick article from Pschology Today that breaks it down the science behind this fact in an easy format. Sometimes I know when I am stressed, other times it is a lot more subtle. My stomach will start to act up, I have trouble sleeping, etc. Lately, I have physically felt the tolls of stress so it’s not surprising that I am also forgetting a lot of things. So to help combat the forgetfulness I am going to need to get to the root of the problem and de-stress. I have never been good at this but here are some of my favorite ways:

Cancel some plans and clear up my calendar. Attend yoga class. Meditate (more on that below). Bake. Turn off my phone for 1 full hour. Walk my dog. Cry (harder than it sounds). Spend more time outdoors. Say no more often.

Meditate More for Better Focus

Meditation is known to improve focus because it forces you to focus your mind in specific places– either your breath, a thought, an image, etc. I know meditation is not for everyone, but I know I feel better when I am doing it regularly. What’s hysterical is that I LOVE it every time I do it. But it’s hard for me to commit. A lot of people do it first thing in the morning. But I like to do it at night to help me better remember the day, detox my brain, and prepare for a good night’s sleep. Which can be rare when I am stressed. Here’s a simple guide to beginner’s mediation.

Eat Better… really 

They say you are what you eat. I always feel less stressed when my diet is in balance. eating clean, fresh foods may feel like it takes a lot of extra steps but sometimes it’s just about finding ways to work it in. I snack on carrots, dump a bunch of nutritious stuff in a blender, cut out coffee when I am feeling too on edge etc. I know that food stuff is where people want to roll their eyes, and trust me I love alcohol probably more than anyone should, but cutting back on things that cause our bodies stress will help get our minds right. So now I actually have to implement this… I’ve started by cutting out coffee this week. And I’m going to add greens to every meal I eat this week. Let’s see how it goes!

Attainable To-Do Lists & Weekly Goals
Y’all know I love to make a to-do list and keep a planner. But when things start slipping away from me they also begin to add up. The list gets longer. Unwieldy. At that point I set unrealistic goals for each day… Like “I’m going to get this list of 10 things done.” Not going to happen… and it really is a form of self-hate to keep pretending I can. So to help my focus and to stop making blunders, I need to set 3-5 to dos a day TOPS. It’s much easier to execute a few small things well, rather than staying scatterbrained and stressed.

I hope you can take these four things I do to help myself into your own daily life to get balanced again and keep crushing all that you do. xoxo