My secret strategy to staying consistent, avoiding stress & overwhelm

When I talk about consistency, I don’t just mean in terms of fitness goals. I am also referring to mental health as well because that is just as important- if not, MORE important. Consistency is something that I have learned that is incredibly important for MENTAL, EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL health. But often, the focus of consistency is on the physical aspect.. Which is important, but like a lot of people- especially women, I was struggling to maintain the consistency I was hoping for.

The struggle can be real & it can also be frustrating.

I’ve written about this before, but a couple years ago, I went through a weird time in my life… kind of like a quarter life crisis. I fell into a depression & ultimately I felt like everything was crumbling around me. It honestly sounds a bit dramatic as I’m typing that out, but it’s true! I felt like nothing I was trying to do was working at all and it became very overwhelming because I so badly wanted to get everything figured out. 

Related: My 8 Step Process to Overcoming Depression, Getting through a quarter life crisis

During this time in my life, I had neglected all of my self care & healthy habits. Every time I thought I was gaining positive momentum, I would fall off track again. It was incredibly frustrating & discouraging. I was constantly getting frustrated with myself for thinking that I wasn’t making progress, not understanding what I needed to do to keep moving forward. I wanted to pick myself back up & keep moving forward, but I felt stuck, lost and confused. I was constantly beating myself up for not not being able to get myself back “on track”.
Related: 5 Steps For Getting Back On Track & Shifting Your Mindset, Developing a self care routine that works for you 

I finally got to a point where I was ready to make some serious changes and put an end to this cycle because it’s exhausting! What I eventually realized is that I needed to understand where my baseline was mentally & physically. I needed clarity and understanding about what I needed to do to keep moving forward. 

I was FINALLY able to develop a strategy that has helped put an end to this cycle & has been a game-changer for me. I’ve had such a great experience with this, that I want to share it with you so you can experience the same thing!

So… what is this secret strategy that I started implementing?

PIN NOW, READ LATER!

Weekly mental, emotional, physical check in with myself.

I started doing this weekly check in to keep myself accountable & do an evaluation of where I am in my life mentally, emotionally & physically. 

The idea for this came from my fitness journey when I would take progress pictures to track my physical progress. While this is important, I also think that it’s incredibly important to track your mental & emotional well-being as well. 

So, I created a weekly evaluation for myself that I call the Mind + Body Inventory & what I believe has been the first step to creating balance & consistency for me.  

Here’s what it looks like:

Every Monday morning I,

• take a series of progress pictures (front, side, back)
• do measurements of my waist, hips, butt, bust, arm & leg
• upload them into a google drive and write answers to series of questions evaluating where I am mentally & emotionally. 

Here’s what I have noticed as a result of this weekly Mind + Body Inventory:

It helps with accountability

It is really easy to tell ourselves that we “don’t have time”. Self-care practices are very important, but are often the first things that we neglect due to the inevitable (not to mention, unhelpful) “I don’t have time”. But, our mental & physical health determines how we show up in our lives. 

Making it a necessity to check in with myself weekly, to see where I am and evaluate what’s going on in my life has helped significantly. I keep track of what’s going on and to be able to understand and determine what I need to do to keep moving forward. 

If I find myself coming up with an excuse to not do this, I tell myself that this needs to be done. It’s a necessity. I have goals and I am ready to take ACTION on them. It is a reminder that I need to do this in order to make sure that I don’t fall into a hole of burnout again.
Related: How to finally start achieving your goals, Getting Over Extreme Burnout, How to Handle Stress & Overwhelm

Allows you to celebrate how far you come

Doing this evaluation also helps me to be able to track my progress, so I can see the progress I’ve made even when I didn’t think I’ve made any.

I’m really big on celebrating wins/accomplishments throughout your journey, because it really helps with motivation! TRUST ME, I completely understand how discouraging it is when you think that you haven’t accomplished very much when you’ve been working really hard. It can really just make you want to throw in the towel & give up because you start thinking, “what’s the point in trying if it’s not working?!”

The truth is, you are probably making progress, but you aren’t able to see it!

This weekly check in helps me be able to really look at everything from a different perspective & really be able to pinpoint what I’ve been able to accomplish. The journey is so much more enjoyable & encouraging when you are able to see & celebrate everything you’ve been able to accomplish, rather than getting discouraged because you don’t think you’ve come very far.
Related: Why You Should Be Celebrating All Of Your Accomplishments

You can pinpoint the mind, body connection

In doing this, I can usually see a correlation between what I see in the pictures and my answers to the questions. If I notice I am a little more bloated than the week before, I have likely been stressed & might have been stress eating or something. 

Being able to pinpoint and understand where things are coming from and why they are happening, I am better able to come up with an action plan. It’s incredibly frustrating to feel like you don’t know what you should be doing in order to keep moving forward.

I’ve talked about this before, but I tend to get stressed out easily. The best thing for me to do is to try to prevent stress & overwhelm, because it’s really hard to get myself back together. So, in being able to keep tabs on everything going on, it helps me in being able to take necessary action to keep moving forward.

So… instead of beating myself up like I used to, I am able to figure out the adjustments the need to be made.

Helps you be able to come up with a plan

In being able to pinpoint and understand where I am mentally, emotionally and physically, I am better able to make the necessary adjustments.

For example, if I find that I am feeling overwhelmed in my business, I know that I need to spend time journaling about what’s on my mind.

Sometimes, the things that are bothering us are stuck in our subconscious and we need to bring them to the surface so we can deal with them. That’s what doing this check in with myself helps me do. It helps me to be able to make sure that everything is in line. If there’s something off, it keeps me cognizant of whatever is going on around me.

This weekly check in is something that I know a lot of people will say that they don’t have time for. It’s something that can be seen as a “I will do it if I have time, which I probably don’t so I’m going to make every excuse not to do it” kind of thing.

Trust me, I totally get being busy and making the choice to remove seemingly unnecessary tasks. However, I now see this exercise as a non-negotiable for me because it’s ultimately helped me be better able to show up in every area of life.

• I’ve been able to stick to my goals.
• I’ve been able to show up better in my business.
• I’ve kept my stress & overwhelm under control so that I am more productive and can better serve my clients.

So, these tasks that we tend to put off due to thinking that they are unimportant just might be detrimental to how you are showing up in your life right now. I just want to make sure that you are taking care of yourself here. I preach about the Importance of Self-Care all the time and I do so because I truly believe that it is essential in creating a foundation for your life.

You must take care of yourself in order to show up better in every aspect of your life. Saying that you don’t have time is simply just an excuse.
Related: 8 ways you are probably holding yourself back without even realizing it, How to know if it’s time to hire a life coach, How to improve your mindset

So, are you READY to start making it a priority to show up for yourself? Are you going to make it a goal to make it a habit to check in with your mental, emotional & mental well-being?!

Still want some more guidance on how exactly to do it?!

I also offer 1:1 Mindset & Confidence Coaching and invite you to check out my opportunities if that is something that you would be interested in. Click here for more information on my 1:1 coaching opportunities! <3

MORE RESOURCES:

>> click here to download my 5 tips for crushing your goals
>> click here to download my self care planning worksheet
>> click here to download my 50 journal prompts for self reflection & self discovery

Xx,
Jess