Daily struggles can easily cause us overwhelm and compromise our energy with increased commitments overload. Much stress and anxiety originates in your head and therefore can overheat your head, quite literally. The associated anxiety can become unmanageable if it continues unchecked.

This is not the stress we associate with challenging us to performance, excellence and achieving optimum capacity. It is a habitual bodily response to overwhelm which serves only to weaken our immunities, resistance to infection and causes chronic ill-health, disease and autoimmune disorders.

Being able to prioritise tasks is a challenge when the demand is to be accessible all the time; to be online; on call even. People who work shifts know the necessity to maintain a balance and the difficulties of switching between night work and daytime work too well.

Our bodies aren’t made for that so we can easily respect the rationale of following the seasons and dawn and daybreak. By maximising natural light and retiring early after darkness our ancestors respected their body rhythms. They rose with the breaking of dawn with their natural biorhythm intact and understood energy conservation and energy management a lot more than we may credit them with.

The following strategies will help to tackle and reduce your stress levels and prioritize your challenges and tasks as you negotiate your day.

1. Accept how you feel instead of allowing self-judgement to impinge on your though process. Pay careful attention to your self-talk, how you talk to yourself (out loud or quietly) when nobody’s listening. Begin to notice critical self-statements, identify their source, begin to question if they’re valid and true, and how useful they are to you now. Isn’t it so true that we can be our own biggest critics?? Learn to be kind to yourself. Treat yourself well if you’re not doing this already and the little things really count here.

2. Cut yourself some slack and start small by just breathing into your stomach and allowing it to fill up like a balloon. Yes, learn to breathe properly by using a straw if you must. Ground yourself by breathing oxygen into every part of your body and by walking barefoot on the ground or grass if possible. Notice the effect it has on your posture, location of any pain or numbness.

After all, Buddha maintains that: “Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most”. It’s never too late to start a new habit, it takes only 28 days to condition ourselves into a habit. Make it a good one. Your only objective is to wake up to your best self.

3. Write down everything that’s in your head. Do a mind dump for five minutes and get it down on paper and find yourself some headspace. Write down everything that’s stressing you out; all that you have to do; make a plan; any other thoughts and ideas occupying your mind. This lessens your stress levels immediately as you have less to hold onto now and your mind is free to deal with other tasks. It’s ideal to this in the evening time before relaxing and retiring.

4. Make time and take time to get a balance and serve your basic needs: Manage your time and your most precious resource, your energy. It doesn’t matter how much energy you have, use it wisely and obviously not all in one go.

The following are Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs:

Allow yourself time for a sense of achievement

Allow yourself time for pure, uninterrupted relaxation

Allow yourself time for being valued

Allow yourself time to connect socially

Allow yourself a sense of being able to do what you want in a safe environment

5. Relax by doing something you enjoy. Cool down. Find things that inspire you; excite you; educate all your senses; enlighten you. Aim to flourish instead of just surviving the daily grind and treadmill. It’s not just about training for the next sponsored run or marathon. Get your serotonin levels up. Start by laughing. Laugh out loud, for real and feel yourself lighten up. Learn to laugh at yourself. Have a good belly laugh and see that it’s as catching as sneezing.

6. Get out in nature, your local walking trail or cycling route if you’re not in the habit. Go hiking and join like-minded groups for activities and shared interests. Reacquaint yourself with your local area without having to jump into your car again.

7. Exercise and lighten up: Part 2: Move your bahookee with skipping, jumping jacks, trampolining, swimming, stretch out those tensions and this is just the warm up.

Get busy with living, it doesn’t matter what so long as it floats your boat. Make you the one who most matters. Mind yourself and be kind to yourself above all. Those who mind matter.