Yesterday we talked about love tanks, and how to fill them. Today, we are talking about Stress Buckets. We all have a baseline stress level that we can handle. Once our life gets pushed past that line, we find ourselves less able to cope with everyday challenges. In normal times, we all create lives and habits that allow us to operate within our normal boundaries of stress management ability.

But, this spring, we have taken that normal stress, added a global pandemic, financial stress, permanent family togetherness (or aloneness) and new challenges of working from home, homeschooling, being a maid, full time chef, and professional seamstress. It makes sense if your stress bucket is filled to the brim, even overflowing.

When you are past capacity with stress, lots of things happen. We become short tempered. We are less able to handle low level stressors without feeling overwhelmed. We have a hard time making decisions. We find we have less energy, feel more pain, have a hard time sleeping. We turn to our chosen vices more quickly. We check out of reality and ignore pressing tasks.

But how do you empty your stress bucket? By using coping skills. Everyone has different default ways to cope and restore your balance, but common ones include exercise, being outdoors, and having meaningful conversations with loved ones. One of the BEST ways to decrease stress is to enter ‘flow’- the state of mind when you are so absorbed in your task that you lose track of time and you are having FUN doing work. People find flow different ways. It could be creating art, baking, putting together a puzzle, or creating a particularly beautiful spreadsheet (ahem- Katie). When do you find yourself getting lost in a task? What things draw you like a magnet? Find intentional ways to do these things to push your stress levels down and your capacity to deal with life up!