Are you a hurried woman? The Daily Mail on Saturday 30th April reported on the increasing way that women lead a hurried life which is caused by chronic stresses in life. The article was based on some work by a U.S researcher, Dr Brent Bost, and defined the main sufferer’s of the syndrome as “affecting as many as 30 million women each year, the Hurried Woman syndrome can drain your energy, cause you to gain weight, (or have trouble keeping your weight stable) increase your moodiness and frustration…”
It seems that many factors are adding together to make women in the 20-55 age group feel over hurried, rushed and stressed in their lives. You may have a completely different set of life circumstances to your peers, and yet still have the end result – tiredness, trouble with sleep and a lack of motivation amongst other things. How do you put yourself in a position where you can break this cycle, without adding to the ever-increasing amount of time that you have to spend doing a thousand and one tasks each day?
Here are 5 top tips to help you put the hurry behind you and get that much needed perspective back in your life.
1.Understand where you are now. Create self-awareness of what is important to you and your life, to help you see if your hurrying is achieving what you want it to. A great way to do this is to take a blank piece of A4 or larger paper, and draw a circle on it that you divide into 8. Name each part of the circle with an area of your life that is important for you, for instance health, wealth, fitness, family, friends, career, spirituality, relationship/ partner, fun, relaxation – whatever best reflects the different spheres of your life. Think about each area of your life & rate yourself out of 10 with 10 being you completely happy, relaxed & confident in that area of your life, 0 being in that area of your life you feel like you do too much, you aren’t in control & that you are generally dissatisfied. You could also rate 0 here if you do not spend any time in this area as you rush too much in the other area’s to even get round to that part of your life!
2.Visualise how you would like to be. Check back in here with yourself that you have 8 areas’s represented that if you were living a balanced & controlled life that you would want to live in. Think about what you would be thinking, feeling, doing & saying if you were living a balanced life that enabled you to live creatively in each area of your life, without feeling rushed, pressurized and tired from all the stress. What changes do you need to make in your life for those things to be a reality? Which top 5 changes will make a difference & turn you from suffering hurried woman syndrome to a woman in control & balance of her life? What’s stopping you taking them? Commit to at least 1 change that you can start right now – and then get out there and doing it!
3.Manage your energy levels. This is a crucial one – often we feel most pressurized and stressed at the times we can least afford it – I know that I do! Help yourself in this by doing all you can to effectively manage your energy. This can include making sure that you are getting the right food to keep you energized all day, getting regular breaks, sleeping well & understanding your natural pattern & working with it rather than against it.
4.Take some time for yourself to smell the roses in life. As you are getting used to not being a hurried woman, this may be difficult for you, so start small if this helps you here – the importance is getting some regular time in your life to recognize the small, and the large things, that make life important for you. Do you know what these are? It could be a walk around the block, a relaxing bath with someone else looking after the kids, or a night out at salsa dancing!
5.Connect with someone important for you. Sharing your concerns with someone close to you & taking time to connect can help you as you build that relationship of connection with them, & also as they say, a “trouble shared is a trouble halved”! Use the resources that you have close to you to balance out your life effectively, and get the support that you need to make sure that it remains there. Who do you need around you to make that happen?
