Burning yourself out? How to harmonise your work and life without going up in smoke!

If you’re feeling out of whack and pulled in many directions, how do you regain your mojo and take control for better work/life balance? In this post, Shoreham Manager Jess Haslett shares some techniques to relieve stress

Constant pressures of work and life can grind us all down, and if you work for yourself, there’s an expectation that you’re always switched “on”, unable to fully tune out and de-stress. This can lead to a myriad of stress responses. Prolonged exposure to stress and pressure can eventually manifest in digestive issues, food intolerances, niggling aches and pains, as well as emotional issues such as anxiety and depression.

Sometimes stress can lead to mental blocks, or a lack of breezy ease to certain tasks. Maybe you’re feeling stagnant and needing to break some negative working patterns, or usher in new ideas and more creativity for work projects?

How Kinesiology helps

Kinesiology can help. By gently testing muscles, imbalances and blockages can be detected in the body and mind. Once these have been identified, they can be cleared using a variety of methods such as stimulating or calming acupressure points, movements or bodywork, nutritional or lifestyle suggestions. Kinesiology can help with many things, including:

• Promoting clarity, connection and creativity
• Building positive relationships
• Clearing self-limiting beliefs
• Restoring equilibrium throughout body and mind

ESR – a simple technique to try at home or work!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious or indecisive, take some time out for regular ESR (Emotional Stress Release), a simple technique you can use effectively on yourself:

Put your hands above your eyebrows on your forehead (see image below).

1. Close your eyes and lightly hold your frontal eminences. (On the forehead above the eyes – see the diagram.)
2. Focus on the event or problem.
3. See the details. (Be aware of the colours, sounds, shapes, smells and feelings involved.)
4. Make it real. (You may notice shallow breathing, the flickering of your eyes or tearfulness.)
5. Continue to lightly hold your forehead, breathe and relax. These signs of stress will pass.
6. Now play the day (or event) as you would like it to happen. Fantasy is OK here.
7. When your mind starts to wander you know the event is cleared of immediate stress.

Using this simple technique brings blood flow to the frontal lobes of the brain. Front brain thinking is creative and can help us find new solutions or alternatives. Back brain thinking is the survival response mode. This is where automatic reactions dwell, based on the alarm and vigilance responses as well as on past experiences.

Regular use of ESR can help you achieve peace of mind, clearer thinking and increased energy for work, family and your own wellbeing.

Kinesiology can add to this gently and very effectively – for more information and an informal chat about how Kinesiology might be able to help you, please contact Jess Haslett 01273 220159