Put A Red Pen To Stress

Is your job causing you stress?  Are you feeling pulled in every direction by family and other responsibilities? Are you having sleepless nights? Are you experiencing migraine headaches and body aches? Is your joy on less than half a tank? You are not alone.

 It seems like a lot of women are  not "feeling right" but can't say exactly what's wrong. It's possible you are experiencing fatigue due to unhealthy levels of stress.  So what can you do about it? You can start by putting the red pen to stress by using the 3 D's: Delete, Delegate and Do less.

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst." Corinthians 3:16 (NIV) 

Our bodies are holy. Because our bodies are important, Our Father in Heaven wants us to take good care of them. He knows that we can be happier, better women if we are healthy.

Transcript

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Ladies, your natural instinct is to worry. You worry about your children, your health, your relationships, and everything else under the sun. It's a classic case of worrywart syndrome. If you tend to worry needlessly, you are not alone. Welcome to the She Strives With Faith podcast with Berthena Jackson. Berthena is a two divorcee, a single mother and war veteran who suffered from anxiety but learned to let go and let God. Berthena will share captivating and down to earth conversations on how to strive by faith. Here's your host, Berthena Jackson. Hello, ladies, welcome back to the She Strives With Faith podcast. I hope you're having a phenomenal day, because I am having a phenomenal day myself. So listen, I want to get into this podcast, I don't want to delay. We are going to take a red pen to stress. That's right, we're going to learn some techniques to manage our stress. Okay, so I want you to imagine, go with me for a moment. It is 6am and your alarm goes off. You blink. Suddenly it is 6pm. The kids need dinner, the dog needs to be walked, your boss is still waiting on those reports. And if you are married or in a relationship, your man has his own special needs, and you know what I mean? But where did the day go? If this sounds familiar, there's a good chance your hectic lifestyle is causing you stress and some anxiety. And besides making you feel continually rushed and out of control, stress can also affect your ability to eat well, move regularly and get a good night's sleep. And I gotta tell you, ladies, when I am not able to sleep, I take a mild sedative that was prescribed to me by my doctor, because I feel that I just cannot wind down, my mind is still going 100 miles per hour, and I can't get it to shut down. But when I'm not taking a mild sedative, there's other things that I'm taking such as herbal tea, I like Echinnacea. I think that's good for my immune system because it gives my immune system a boost. But it also helps me to relax and prepares my body for sleep. And there's also some other things out there that you can take. You do what's best for you. And as women, you would agree that we get so overwhelmed with work and family responsibilities, don't we? especially during times of change. We, there's like this serious spike in our stress levels. And when our stress levels go up, it can lead to burnout. You can start feeling symptoms like low personal accomplishment, disinterest in social activities. You don't want to exercise, you don't want to be around people. You start feeling pain and physical issues. You get tension headaches or migraines, tight muscles and digestive problems. There's a reduced sense of humor and your joy is gone. And on top of that, you're having some difficulty sleeping. Ladies, we go through periods of burnout that make us feel absolutely exhausted. And ladies, we need to figure out how to reset ourselves back to the more energetic, optimistic women that we are. And I don't know what that looks like for you. It may be exercising more, it may be sticking to a consistent sleep schedule. It may even be putting your phones away during family time and personal time. Now I want you to ask yourself a question. Can you do God's work at your best if you're feeling tired or sluggish? Can you serve him at your best if your mind is foggy, because you haven't filled your body with enough fuel. Taking care of our bodies, it's not about vanity. Taking care of our bodies is not an option. We take care of our bodies because it is in His Word. We are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Our bodies ladies are given to us to do His work. A healthy body provides us with the energy to do God's work. And as Christians, taking care of our bodies is taking care of the place where the Holy Spirit dwells. There's a scripture that says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? You can read that in First Corinthians, chapter six, verse 15. I will admit that Christians are very busy. We barely have a chance to rest between work, families, and ministry. Finding time to exercise can be difficult. I know that to be the case. And I know that you know, too, I know that you can relate. But how long do we need? For exercise? Is it 20 minutes? Is it 30 minutes? What is it? What's keeping us from exercising, because exercise does not require a fancy gym membership. I had a gym membership for a long time, but I let it go. Why? Because there were things that I could do at my home, there were videos that I had that were collecting dust that I hadn't used in a while CDs, you know, Tae Bo, Hip Hop Abs. I can even walk in my kitchen, there's a lady that I was watching some time ago, and she does videos where you're just stepping in place, and it burns calories, and it makes you feel so good afterwards. It's amazing. You can go on YouTube, and find all sorts of free videos where people are actually giving you advice and suggestions, exercise techniques that you can use for your own personal enjoyment. If you're into high intensity training, you can find that on YouTube. If you just want to walk in place, they got that for you, too. If you're looking to, if you're looking to build strength and muscle, you want to get more into weight training. I'm telling you, you can go and google it. And it's not going to cost you a dime. So let's get this thing out of our head that says we need a gym membership because we don't. And what about a walk during the morning, and while you're walking, maybe doing a prayer or devotion. And if you don't want to walk in the morning, what about after dinner, you could even walk during your lunch break. Ladies, we have no excuses for reducing our stress. And that's what I'm here to talk about. These are things that you can do to reduce your stress levels. Now I know healthy eating can be a little tricky. Because there are so many unhealthy food choices that are assessable and sometimes less expensive. You can find a McDonald's or a Burger King or Wendy's or Arby's on every corner. But we have to make choices, good choices. And sometimes just eating less food is good. And nowadays, there are a bunch of unnecessary supersize options. Ladies, we do not need to be supersizing everything, a regular portion is enough for most people. And then why not eat more vegetables? Why not? Because that's going to reduce the number of other foods that you consume because vegetables are very filling. And don't forget about drinking your water either. These are starting suggestions. Remember, that the more we do to take care of our body, the better our body will be prepared to serve the Lord, to do his work. We take care of our bodies because they are the temples of the Holy Spirit. It is not about vanity or turning heads. I mean, of course we want to look good, but that's not the primary reason. We must also remember not to obsess over taking care of our bodies. It's about taking care of the vessel that the Lord has given us to do His work. We maintain our cars and keep them fueled appropriately, don't we? Why do we do that? Because we need to use our vehicles to get us from point A to point B, our cars need to be ready. So, in the same respect, we must maintain our bodies and feed them properly so we are ready when God needs to use our bodies to serve him. It's just a different way of looking at it. Now I'm going to give you some helpful advice. I want you to grab some paper, your schedule if you have one and a pen because ladies we are going to get ruthless because you and I are going to try an exercise called the three Ds delete delegate do less and if you have a red pen, grab the red pen, because that's going to make this exercise even more satisfying. Now, here's what I want you to do before you start, I need for you to get clear on exactly what how you're spending your time. So this is where you're going to start a time diary. You're going to pick a day to keep a time diary. You can do this for more than one day, but one day is often enough to tell you where your time is going. Then you're going to capture your activities in 30 minute increments. You don't have to write down every 30 minutes, but try to do it at least once an hour so that your recall is accurate. Now, if you're doing something for a few hours, like sleeping, just fill it in when you can. You don't have to be super detailed, just get the general idea. The goal here is simply to show how you spend your time. So try to be as accurate as possible. And then I want you to look for patterns, things that are repetitive and consider what you can adjust. The time diary is going to show you where your time is going and what things you might need to anticipate in your routine. Now you're ready to scrutinize, examine and inspect. So step number one of the D is delete one or more activities. Do you have habits such as TV, tick tock, social media stuff, you know, Facebook, Instagram, not that they don't serve you anymore, but you're spending way too much time. You know, too much time on social media can be stressful for real. Because people talking about any and everything. You know, some people are on there, they're angry, they're upset. But anyway, what would happen if a given task doesn't get done at all? What might be the worst outcome? Remember, delete at least one activity on your list. Okay. Step number two, Delegate whatever you can consider each task and ask yourself Who else can do this? Could your husband pack the lunches? Could a neighborhood kid cut the grass? Can your kids fold their own clothes? If you offload something, what's the worst that could happen? Again, try to delegate at least one thing. And then step number three, do less. Challenge yourself. If you're used to shooting for an A plus, and what would an eight minus or B plus look like? I'm not suggesting you stop striving for excellence in the tasks that really matter. Instead, figure out where you spend unnecessary time trying to meet self imposed expectations that really don't matter. Finally, do less of that. And that's it. The idea, of course is to audit your life and look for ways to remove things that are needlessly contributing to your overall stress load. These are often tasks habits and responsibilities that go unquestioned and unchecked for weeks, months or even years. Why does this happen? Well, because you take on too much yourself. You don't ask for help. And you don't consider alternative solutions. So ladies, are you feeling relatable? Does this all make sense? I hope so. I want you to embrace the three Ds. Okay, and share it with some of your other sister friends. Share it with your husband, your brothers, you know relatives because I think it's going to help them as well. So ladies, it is salvation time. This is my favorite part of the episode. Because according to Romans chapter 10, verse nine, it says that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart, that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Beloved, this is your opportunity to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If you're ready, I want you to repeat after me. Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I need your forgiveness. I believe you died in my place and rose from the grave, to make me new and to prepare me to live in your presence forever. Jesus come into my life. Take control of my life. Forgive my sins and save me. I place my trust in you alone for my salvation, and I accept your free good gift of eternal life. Thank you, Lord. In the name of Jesus, I have prayed. Amen. Beloved sister, even though you recited this prayer, reciting a prayer cannot save you. If you want to receive the salvation that is available through Jesus, place your faith in Him, fully trust his death as the sufficient sacrifice for your sins. Completely rely on Him alone as your Savior. So ladies, as always, I thank you for listening to the She Strives With Faith podcast. I hope you'll tune in again for another episode. If you enjoyed the podcast please share with your friends and family. Thank you so much for doing that. Until next time, keep striving with faith. Keep exercising and keep eating healthy. As always love and blessings. We will chat soon. Bye for now. Thank you for listening to the She Strives With Faith podcast. To hear more about how you can tap into the power of striving with faith. Join her next week. If you found value in the episode, give her a rating or tell a friend about the show. Follow Berthena on Facebook and Instagram for a more personal chat. Until next time, strive to keep faith alive