MotherHustle Issue 08: STRESS
stress: n. a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.
She came home deflated. Stepped off the bus with a frown and a heavy step. I asked her what was wrong.
“The Leprechauns didn’t cause any mischief at our house last night! How come?”
Shit. What? It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I was supposed to make mischief? But Easter is in two weeks. The Easter Bunny is coming. So now Leprechauns are the opening act?
“I’m sorry, honey. Maybe they’ll come next year.”
“Next YEAR?!”
And cue the water works.
Ok, ok. Maybe I can throw some green food coloring on something later and say they came late. Yes, I’ll do that. Ok, good.*
So I heap my crying child into the car to pick up my other child at daycare, so I can rush home and make dinner and give them baths and put them to bed and tell them stories and no-more-that’s-the-last-one and you-already-have-a-glass-of-water and for-real-its-time-for-bed so I can GET BACK TO WORK.
And as I’m driving I’m thinking of that last email from that last client, and how am I going to write that thing by tomorrow, and I can’t forget to get back to that new request, and I really should fix up my LinkedIn account ugh my LinkedIn account is a mess and …
Suddenly we’re home and dinner is done and kids are potentially asleep or playing a really really good trick and I’m back on my computer.
And now work time begins again. And sometimes I just want to cry.
Because there’s just so much — of everything. Work. Details. Expectations. Pressure. It’s like the knot in my stomach keeps rolling, collecting more and more stress as it turns, growing like a snowball down a mountain.
Sometimes that snowball is hard as a rock and hard to move. Other times, I wake up and it has melted away. But the puddle is still there, needing tending. The stress is still there, waiting.
It’s hard — maybe impossible — to avoid stress as a mom. Same as a creative mompreneur. The details compound. The work flows (if we’re lucky! we can’t complain, right?! Right?!). The time — where does the time go?
So, stress is a thing. But how can we cope? Is there a way to make stress a POSITIVE thing? I’m no expert in this area, clearly, so I turned to people who are. Here’s what they said:
#1: Stop looking at stress as the enemy. Guess what? Some stress it good! Get out of town, right? Studies show that short-term anxiety can be good for your brain and your body.
- Stress boosts brainpower. “Low-level stressors stimulate the production of brain chemicals called neurotrophins, and strengthen the connections between neurons in the brain.”
- It enhances memory. “While chronic stress often produces detrimental effects on these measures, acute stress has been shown to enhance learning and memory, predominantly through the action of corticosteroid stress hormones.”
- And it’s exhilarating. “It’s similar to the rush a thrillseeker gets during an extreme sport such as bungee jumping. By activating the dopamine reward center in the brain that feeds us feel-good endorphins, stress can temporarily boost performance.”
#2: Instead, know how to relieve or manage it. So it appears stress might be a necessary evil in small doses. But when it’s chronic — when you feel emotional pressure over a prolonged period of time — it can be bad news for your mind and body. Knowing how to deal with it is critical.
- How Successful People Deal With Stress
- 6 Steps Any Entrepreneur Can Take to Relieve Stress
- Stress Management For Parents
#3: Work those theories into daily practice. While some of these tips make my eyes roll involuntarily, some (like getting up earlier than my kids) really do help relieve my stress. So let’s try some of them together.
Next week’s issue on MotherHustle: Presence. Get it delivered.
*Never happened, by the way. Forgot the Leprechaun mischief later that day, and the next day. It’s now a week later, and she still randomly asks if they’re coming.
MotherHustle is a weekly publication for creative mompreneurs — moms who run, or dream of running, a creative business. This is a reprint of issue 8. Subscribe, boss.
