7 Ways To Manage Stress More Effectively

Ever felt that mix of exhaustion and restlessness? You’re not alone. I'm diving deep into my journey and some straightforward, actionable tips to help us manage stress together. 

We’ll explore the thin line between good stress and the kind that weighs us down, and I'll let you in on how to spot the difference. Plus, I’m talking about the strength found in vulnerability and how sharing your struggles can be a game-changer. 

For those of you navigating the solo journey of making your dreams happen, I’ve got some insights just for you. 

Let’s navigate the challenges of stress together, finding a balance between the hard moments and the lighter, brighter side of life. Subscribe and join me on this journey, where we learn, grow, and tackle each day with a bit of grace and lots of support. ❤️

Chapters

• 0:00 Dealing With Stress in Everyday Life
• 8:07 Recognizing and Managing Stress Symptoms
• 23:15 Managing Stress Through Simple Techniques
• 34:21 Overcoming Perfectionism and Seeking Help

Transcript

Anna: 0:00

Hey, team, welcome back to my podcast Today. I'm growing. I'm so excited to have you here Today. Finally, I'm back here in my apartment in Berlin. I love to record here because it's so easy. I have everything here, I have my microphone stand here, I have my setup here, and I haven't had that in the last couple of weeks.

Anna: 0:18

As you know, I was traveling. I spent four weeks in New York. No, that's not true. True, I spent four weeks in LA and then two weeks in New York, and I had the most amazing time. I had so much fun, but it was also a little bit stressful, and I think this is the perfect intro for this podcast episode because, yeah, it was stressful as well. It was a lot of stress for my body, it was a lot of stress for my mind.

Anna: 0:42

Traveling always is a little bit stressful in a positive, but also a little bit in a negative way, but that's why I want to share this with you At the beginning of this podcast episode. Team, today, yeah, we're talking about stress. We're talking about stressful situations and I'm 100% sure you can relate, not just when you are traveling, but in everyday life. There are so many stressful situations and so many stressful moments that we have every single day, every single week, every single month and every single year. So many different stressful moments, stressful situations, and I want to talk about those today. I want to normalize them, because one thing for sure and I will say this over and over again in this podcast episode here stress is here, like we can't avoid it. There is no chance you can avoid stress, and everyone who is telling you how to avoid stress like they are not right, because you can't avoid it.

Anna: 1:35

I think every one of us reacts to stress a little bit different. For some of us, it might be a big thing, even the tiniest, littlest littlest I don't know if that is a word thing even the tiniest, littlest littlest, I don't know if that is a word, but the tiniest thing freaks us out. But then there are others and they respond so different to stressful situations. So every one of us reacts different to stress. But one thing for sure we all are affected by stress and we can't avoid it. So what I want to figure out with you today, here in this episode team, is how can we handle stress better, how can we deal? So what I want to figure out with you today, here in this episode team is how can we handle stress better? How can we deal with stress better? I want to share things that I do and I want to share my ways with you. I have seven ways, or seven tips that I want to share with you at the end of this episode Seven ways how to deal with stress a little bit better, or seven ways to manage stress more effectively. Before we're gonna dive into my tips and before I'm gonna share my ways with you, I quickly wanna talk a little bit about stress and what happens when you experience stress. I think it's different for everyone, but I wanna share what I experience when I'm stressed. Maybe you can relate.

Anna: 2:45

So, first of all, what stresses me, what freaks me out? I'm thinking back of the last couple of weeks. Yes, there was traveling, but when I think more of my everyday life, I'm self-employed, I'm my own boss, I love to work and I work a lot, but I think, when it comes to my life and work, work is like such a big part of my life. And think, when it comes to my life and work, work is like such a big part of my life. And when it comes to work and my business, there are so many things that do stress me a lot, for example, deadlines. For example, endless to-do lists. For example, right now I sit here in front of my journal and planner and there are so many to-dos on it. Honestly, I love to write everything down.

Anna: 3:24

As you know, I'm a writer, I love to write, I love to plan and I love to write down to-do lists. Sometimes I'm really good with being realistic, but sometimes I'm not really good and I'm not really realistic, for example, today. That's why there's an endless to-do list. But yeah, there are deadlines, there are all these to-dos and tasks and there is a team waiting, a team behind the scenes who is helping me with editing and organizing things or helping me with finances. There is a team behind me waiting every single day for answers and decisions.

Anna: 3:59

And especially when I don't feel confident, for example, to make a decision, when I feel like I don't know, I don't feel confident, for example, to make a decision when I feel like I don't know, I don't have the decision yet, I don't know how I want to decide, then I stress myself out, like I stress a lot about it when I started my business, when I started YouTube, and I think, in general, when you start something new, it's so out of your comfort zone and so many little things are new to you and you have to figure out how it all works. So at the beginning, let me tell you, team, when I started it all, it was so, so stressful. Now it's definitely better, because when you step out of your comfort zone not just in business or not just with all your to-dos and tasks but when you step out of your comfort zone and you have to do something that feels really uncomfortable, then you do it and it might be a really, really weird feeling and not a really comfortable feeling, but once you're done with it, you grow from it and then the next time it's so much easier and then the next time it's easier again. So every single time when you do something challenging, it helps you grow and it helps you become stronger. And that's why I think, after I don't know when I started my business three years ago, four years ago but after, let's say, after four years now, I feel like I'm so much more grounded and not everything freaks me out. There are still things that freak me out sometimes, but not every tiny little thing. But yeah, when it comes to business, I think this is the most stressful thing for me at the moment or in the last couple of years.

Anna: 5:31

But there's also so many other things when it comes to stress, like, for example, relationships like if you are in a fight with someone, like if you fight with your parents or with friends. It's also a stressful situation. It's also out of comfort zone. It's nothing comfortable, right? So when you have a hard conversation with someone and then you start to fight with someone, that's also super, super stressful. What else can be really stressful?

Anna: 6:01

Moving apartments, moving into a new city even though it's exciting at the same time, it's also always super, really stressful. Moving apartments moving into a new city even though it's exciting, at the same time, it's also always super, super stressful. I'm glad I haven't had to change apartments in more than one and a half years now. I'm so happy that I have an apartment here now, but I can already imagine when I want to move out of this apartment to another place it's going to be a really, really hectic and stressful situation. Talking about this right now makes me think of one thing that I already want to mention.

Anna: 6:33

Being aware of these stressful situations is so powerful. For example, if I want to move out in one month. If I want to move to a new city and I'm already aware of it, I'm already like, okay, want to move to a new city and I'm already aware of it. I'm already like, okay, this is going to be really challenging and a really stressful time then this does something with me. Like I set different kind of expectations, for example, then I already know, okay, I might have to tell all my friends and my family that I don't have that much time for them during this movement period. But but being aware of stressful situations, I think is something that we all should work on and we should not be too hard on ourselves and we should not try to keep up everything we do and then put extra, extra stress on ourselves. I hope this makes sense somehow. But, as an this moving situation, if you are training for a half marathon and you eat, you have like your healthy eating routine and you run every single day, you have your routines and you have your habits, but then there's like this external factor, like the moving, moving out into a new place, then you have to be a little bit yeah, you have to be nice to yourself and you have to be like, okay, I might can't stick to all my routines the way I always did, because now there's just so much and every single day has just 24 hours. Team, like, be aware of that, okay, and please be a little bit more, a little bit more gentle to yourself, a little bit more kind to yourself that's the right word.

Anna: 8:07

Now, every one of us reacts different to stressful situations, reacts different to any kind of stress, and to me, let me think about when I feel stressed. How do I feel? First of all, I feel tired. I feel really exhausted. At the same time, I'm kind of hyperactive. I'm kind of like running from one corner of the room to the other corner of the room, so I'm kind of like nervous and like moving my fingers and my toes and I can't sit still. But at the same time I'm really tired and exhausted. I get really tight muscles, so my neck starts to get really tired and exhausted. I get really tight muscles, so my neck starts to get really, really tight. I would say it gets so tight that it also turns into my head and then I have headache. So it's all like tight and my muscles are so I don't know, I don't know how to describe it, but then I also have headache. I can't sit still.

Anna: 9:02

And one really interesting thing is maybe you can relate when I tell you that is when it comes to food, when it comes to eating. I also noticed that when I'm stressed I tend to eat different. I tend to eat definitely more. I think there are two types of extremes when it comes to the stress eaters the ones who are not hungry at all, the ones who just can't eat, and the other ones who tend to overeat and tend to binge eat and they just try to distract themselves with food. That's definitely me. So, as an example, I sit down at dinner and I feel really stressed I've had a really long and hard day and I just sit down, I turn on Netflix and then I make myself dinner and then I make myself a snack and then I make myself another snack and then I eat ice cream and dessert and then I start again with something salty, like I don't feel satisfied. I just sit in front of my laptop or TV and watch Netflix and I eat and I eat and I eat.

Anna: 10:02

And this happens sometimes when I feel really, really stressed. I want to mention here that it definitely got so much better, but it's a really bad eating behavior that I've developed over years. It's something that I did for so long, for such a long time, so it's really hard to get rid of it. I think I'm better, because when I'm in those situations right now, then I'm way more aware of it. Then I'm like, because when I'm in those situations right now, then I'm way more aware of it. Then I'm like, hold on, anna, what is happening here right now? And then I sit down and I'm like really listening to my body and really listening to my mind and I'm like am I really hungry right now? Does my body really need this right now, or am I waiting because there is something going on? Because I feel stressed? And then I really try to analyze myself and I try to analyze my pattern and my eating behavior. That's just going on right now. But yeah, that's something I think.

Anna: 10:55

When you struggled with food in general in the past, like I did, I struggled with food for such a long time. Food always had been something that's been really complicated to me. So I think, especially in stressful situations, my body's looking for something that makes me in the first place, makes me feel more comfortable and makes me like, gives me the lucky hormones, the happy hormones. Does that make any sense? But when you eat, for example, chocolate, like your body's like, yay, chocolate, give me sugar. And that's what I feel like. When I'm eating in front of Netflix, I'm like, yeah, this is so comfortable, this makes me happy. But the actual truth is when you overeat, when you eat so much that you feel like bloated and really uncomfortable, then it's not happy hormones that you're experiencing, then it's just a moment of feeling guilty and feeling ashamed and feeling really uncomfortable in your body. So overeating might feel good for a second, but then after it definitely doesn't feel good.

Anna: 12:00

I think everyone knows what I'm talking about. Whoever had this experience of overeating. I think everyone in their whole life like at least once we eat a little bit too much, and we all know how it feels. Oh, I want to talk about one more thing that I also experience when I'm stressed, like one other symptom, and I also get that when I drink too much coffee. I also want to point that out because it also shows me that maybe sometimes I drink a little bit too much coffee and that's also a lot of stress for my body, but I get, like this, really high heart rate. Have you ever experienced this when you stand still, but you have a really high heart rate?

Anna: 12:44

It might be also the same when you get really nervous, when you get nervous but you have a really high heart rate. It's it's. It might be also the same when you get really nervous, when you get nervous before a big speech or when you have a test in school and you get nervous before because you're so scared that if you fail this test, if you don't have a good grade on it, then your life is over. But I always get like a super high heart rate and, yeah, that's also a sign of being stressed. I mentioned really quick right now that before a test, you get really nervous, or before speaking like a public speaking event that you have to be part of and you are speaking there, like you get nervous before. Right, you get, you get really, really nervous and your heart rate gets high and there's a lot of stress going on inside of you. But that's not negative stress. So what I want to say is that there is positive and there is negative stress, and not every single stress that we experience from day to day, from week to week, is negative stress.

Anna: 13:44

Sometimes we need a little bit of stress. We need deadlines, team. If we don't have deadlines, then we might never get anything done. So I definitely need deadlines and I sometimes also need, for example, my manager, who is behind me and he's like Anna, you have to finish this, you have to do this, this will bring you forward and this will help you grow. So I need sometimes that voice behind me who is saying, yeah, like you have to do it, you have to push through right now, but then it's done. Once you're done with this, then it's done, then you can breathe, then you can relax, then it's done. So this is the good kind of stress. The good kind of stress is the short stress, for, for example, you have a project and you stick to your deadlines and then the project is over and then you are done and then it's time to refill your cup. That's the good kind of stress. But if you have this type of stress without any kind of breaks, without any kind of moments to relax, to breathe, to just take a step back, then it turns into the negative stress, into the chronic stress. When you don't give yourself breaks, when you don't allow yourself to rest, team, then it turns into the cycle of stress, stress, stress, stress, stress from week to week, from month to month, from year to year.

Anna: 15:01

And then we've all heard about burnout and sometimes, yeah, we laugh about people who say, oh, they had burnout, because so many people at one point said, yeah, I just have a burnout right now. So it was hard to believe everyone. But burnout is a thing and chronic stress is a thing and we should all be really, really careful because it's not a nice feeling when you have to take a break and when you have to pause because your body is just shutting down and is telling you okay, no, I don't continue, I'm not, I don't keep going, just give me a sip of water. I'm talking so much and so fast right now that I definitely have to hydrate myself. Now also, your reminder to stay hydrated during my podcast episodes, but also throughout the day. Team hydration is really, really important if you want to be healthy, happy, healed. That's what I always say. But, yeah, let's keep going with this podcast episode.

Anna: 15:59

The last thing we talked about was chronic stress and that we have to make sure we don't fall into this dark circle of stress, stress, stress, no rest, no breaks, no time to recover. We have to avoid that and we have to be careful that we live a balanced whatever balance means to you life. One thing, because I am all the way for fitness and I'm all the way for the healthy lifestyle and, as you know, on all my social media channels, on YouTube, like my whole life it's so much about fitness, it's so much about healthy habits and being the healthiest, strongest, fittest version of yourself. But fitness it's actually the exact same. It is a lot of stress for your body, like every single workout is stress for your body, and I don't know if you knew that. But, for example, when you do strength training, you damage your muscles. When you do a squat, for example, or a bicep curl, you damage your muscles, and then it's really important that you allow yourself to rest, because in that rest time, that's actually when your muscles are growing. So that's why it's so important to recover after every single workout session. That's why it's so important to have rest days too. It's so, so important, because otherwise you can't even grow, like your muscles can't recover and, yeah, they can't grow. Then that's why rest days are so important, and workouts are not just really, really tough for your muscles, it's also really tough for your nervous system, for your mind, so after every single workout you put so much stress also on your mind. That's why it's even more important to have rest days to allow yourself and your body to recover. That's the only way to avoid the chronic stress, the chronic fitness stress, and to avoid overtraining. Have you ever heard about the term overtraining? Have you ever heard of that? It's also a thing and I get a lot of DMs Maybe you also had been one of the people texting me about overtraining that feel exhausted, that you feel tired, but you also feel guilty just taking a day off and you don't really allow yourself to rest because maybe also because you compare yourself to others.

Anna: 18:25

You see everyone on social media and they all are active and they all show their hard workouts and it looks like they train seven days a week. But let me tell you, the ones who really stick to a proper training plan, a proper workout program, they don't train seven days a week. They have a really good training split and they also allow themselves to train. But that's sometimes not what we see on social media. We are also not every single second on social media. So imagine there is this person on social media who is sharing their workout routine, and from Monday to Friday you go on the profile of this person and this person shared their workout every single day, but then you didn't check the stories of this person on Saturday and Sunday and they had an amazing time off.

Anna: 19:12

All I want to say with this is that you don't see everything on social media. You don't see every single moment, maybe because they're not posting every single thing, but also maybe you missed one or two days, like you don't know, so you never see the full picture. That's why I don't want you to compare yourself to anyone else, not when it comes to your fitness routine. Also not when it comes to your work and hustle routine. You can't compare your life to anyone else, especially not on social media. It doesn't make any sense because you don't see everything that's really important to mention here and, of course, it's also really stressful if you compare yourself to anyone else on social media or if you compare yourself to in general in life, like to anyone. It doesn't make sense. So please, your monthly reminder don't compare yourself.

Anna: 20:02

Team, I just mentioned a few symptoms that I experience when I feel really stressed. Of course, there are so many other things. Maybe you experience those when you're stressed. Maybe you get really frustrated and you get really moody. I mean, I also can relate to that, to be honest, because I also get really moody, especially to other people, and I'm I'm also a little bit sorry right now to all my friends and to my mom, to the people I work with, because when in the past, when I had some really stressful situations, I either ignored them or I was really. I was really mad, like I said things that I didn't want to say. To be honest, I was frustrated and I let that frustration out to the people that I actually love and they just wanted to help me and they just wanted to support me. But I was so stressed that I, yeah, said some things that I wish I wouldn't have said. Maybe you have experienced that too in the past or you still do. That's a sign of stress Also just a negative mindset in general, the negative words you say to others, but also the negative things you say to yourself, when you always feel like everyone is against you, when you feel like you are not enough, nothing is enough.

Anna: 21:25

Yeah, this negative mindset, I also sometimes struggle with it when I'm stressed and then I always feel like everyone is just against me and I'm on my own, I start to feel really lonely and I start to feel really upset and I feel like then my friends are against me, everyone is against me. That's how I feel when I'm stressed. It's a really dark place, it's a really negative place. Oh, and then the few last things that I want to talk about.

Anna: 21:52

One thing, because it's such a present topic here on this podcast when you get really, really stressed and that's especially for my girls and all my women here there is a really high chance that you mess up your hormones. If you put constantly like stress on your body, if you have this chronic stress, it messes up your hormones and it can lead to period loss. So it could be that you lose your period and once you have lost your period I also want to mention that quickly then it's really hard to heal your hormones again I don't know how to say it. Like it is possible to get your period back, but your body will never forget and you have to be extra, extra careful and you have to treat yourself the right way for the rest of your life, because once you have messed up your hormones, it it definitely is possible that you get everything back and that you are healthy and happy again, but your body just won't forget what happened back then and it will always respond in the same way. So everything that I actually want to say is that once you have lost your period, it's possible to get it back, but then in future you just have to be a bit careful because you might lose it again if you're not careful and if you keep stressing and if you keep putting a lot of stress on your body. So that's one thing. You might lose your period or digestion. That's another thing. I get your period or digestion. That's another thing.

Anna: 23:15

I get so many dms about bloating. I get so many dms asking me for tips how to prevent bloating or what I do if I feel bloated, how I reduce bloating. And bloating can like it's possible that you get bloated from different kind of foods. So, for example, even the healthy foods like broccoli, something that's really high in fiber, that can bloat you. But also stress can bloat you. So if you don't take care of stressful situations, if you don't know how to handle them, it can also lead to bloating.

Anna: 23:49

I could mention so many more symptoms, I could mention so many other things, but I think I'm gonna stop here now. I'm gonna stop here and, yeah, whatever you experience, I think you can definitely feel that there is something going on. If you really take a moment and just analyze yourself and analyze your behaviors, I think you can really tell. If you are really mindful, then you can really tell that there is something going on and that you experience stress right now. Maybe next time when you have a really, maybe next time when you have a feeling that there might be something wrong. There's something going on right now. Just sit down for a second, just breathe and just be aware of it and just just experience that feeling. We said at the beginning of this podcast episode you can't avoid it. You can't avoid this feeling of being really, really stressed, but you can be aware of it and you can accept it and you can be like okay, I'm stressed right now, it's all good, it's all okay. What can I do now? Like? How can I do now? Like, how can I handle these stressful situations? And that's what we're going to tap into now.

Anna: 24:58

My seven ways, team seven ways to manage stress effectively, to deal better with stress. And the first one, the first way that I want to share with you is something I talk so much about. It's writing. I love to write. Here on this table that I sit right now, there are so many books, colorful books, journals, planners so many books just with lines, maybe with nothing, because I love to write. I really love to write, and what I mean by that is I'm not writing books or I'm not writing. I don't know essays, I'm just writing. I'm writing writing books or I'm not writing. I don't know essays, I'm just writing. I'm writing down whatever's on my mind.

Anna: 25:39

It really helps me to structure my days, for example, planning Like I plan my days. I plan what I want to accomplish. I write down my to-do lists. And when I say to-do lists, I want to give you a quick tip here, because it's really important, at least for me, that you have to-do lists for your business, like for your work. That's the to-do list you might think of. But you also have to have a space for your personal to-dos, for example, your workout, for example, time with friends, self-care time. Maybe you want to go to get your nails done, you want to go and get a massage. It's really important that you have two to-do list areas the business and work to-dos and the personal to-dos, but that's what I write down.

Anna: 26:23

I also like to journal sometimes, but journaling can mean so many different things to me. It's not sitting down and then have an empty space. Sometimes it's like a question that I have in my head or a question out of my journal. For example, what are you grateful for? That's the easiest example, and then I just write down okay, I'm grateful for this and I'm grateful for that. Or other question could be what is something you always wanted to be when you were a child? And then I think back and I'm like, yeah, that's something my, like Anna, as a child, would have loved to do and would have loved to be. So that's also part of writing. And sometimes when I feel overwhelmed for example, if there's the most stressful situation then I also love to just open my book and I start to write down everything.

Anna: 27:10

Also, when I feel so overwhelmed, when I have so many things in my head, have you ever experienced that, when I have so many things in my head, have you ever experienced that, when you have so much stuff in your head and you feel like it's exploding because your parents want this from you and your team colleagues want this from you, but also your friends want to have this from you, and it's just so overwhelming and it's so much information. Then it's such a relief to just sit down for 10 minutes and you have those 10 minutes. You definitely have those 10 minutes. Just sit down and write all the information in your head down. It's such a relief. And then the best thing is to figure out what is important right now. What can you delete out of this list? Like, what can you cross out and what is important? Then you make a circle around it and you're like, okay, this is important to me now. My parents need this right now. Nothing else is as important as this. And then you focus on this one thing. But writing down things like that really helps to clear your mind, sort all your thoughts and feelings and emotions. I highly recommend you start doing that if you have never tried it before.

Anna: 28:15

My second way for you on how to handle stress a little bit better in the future is an emergency way. This is for the times when you experience a really high heart rate and you feel like, really like, oh my God, your body is exploding in a second. So that's my emergency way and it's something so stereotypical. I'm sure you have heard about it or you have seen any kind of tips like this, but people say, when you feel this feeling and when you experience this really crazy emergency, stressful situations, then you should just sit down and breathe. And I have tried that in the past and first it didn't work. So I want to make one thing clear here Like it didn't work for me in the past, I tried to breathe and I tried to stay calm, but it was really really challenging and really really hard. So meditation or just breathing breathing in for 10 seconds and breathing out for 10, 15, 20 seconds it had been so hard for me at the beginning. But everything in life, let me tell you, is about practice. Everything in life is about doing something over and over and over again and being consistent with it, and I stayed consistent with it. I started to breathe whenever I felt that feeling, whenever I had this really hot, this really high heart rate, and now it works. It doesn't work every single time but, let's say, 90% of the times it works, and I can go from a heart rate that feels like 200, I can go down to 180, whatever, whatever is healthy and whatever makes me feel the healthiest and happiest, but breathing had been a really effective technique for me.

Anna: 29:59

There are different kind of breathing techniques that you can apply in stressful situations. If you have no idea how to start or where to start, I highly recommend to check out a youtube video. You can type in breathing breathing technique to relax the nervous system, to relax. You can also check out apps like Headspace. I feel like Headspace is a really good app that helped me in the past. Check it out and also let me know how it works for you. I hope it works for you. You should definitely give it a try.

Anna: 30:30

My tip number three for you when it comes to how to deal better with stressful situations is movement. Of course we have to talk about it. Of course we have to talk about moving your body. As long as you listen to your body and you do what feels right to you, I think moving your body can be such an effective tool to deal better with stress. To, first of all, with every single workout that you do, you get mentally stronger and you get mentally tougher and you can deal better with stress in general. But also when you already experience a really stressful day, then also moving your body like press the pause button, just make a break and just go out for a walk. It's so effective and it's such a relief. It's so good for your body, but also so good for your mind.

Anna: 31:16

I love when I have a really busy day. I love to just block 10 minutes, 15 minutes, put on my headphones. That's something I always do, like no matter what I do, I put in my headphones, I zone myself out and then it's just me, the music or whatever comes out of my headphones, it's just me and my headphones. And then I go out for a walk and it's such a yeah, it's such a relief and I love it. I love it on stressful days. I love it all the time. I love moving my body and it can be such a great and effective tool to deal better on a stressful day. And when I say moving your body, team, like I also mentioned, you can go out just for like a 10 minute walk. That is enough. I know life is busy sometimes and you don't have the time to do a crazy workout every single time to clear your mind. But don't be so hard on yourself. Like you do what works for you. And if today, just a 10-minute walk works for you, then that's fine. If, on another day, you want to go to a one-hour workout class and you have the time and that works for you on that day, then just go for it and do it. It's really important to not compare, to not push yourself into anything that you just want to do, but it's just not realistic right now. Like listen to your body, listen to every single day life and do your best. That's also something I want to talk about here today is do your best, like every single day, just try to do your best. That's, that's enough. It's enough. Yes.

Anna: 32:43

Tip number four and way number four is making the time for balance. I hope this makes sense, but we have talked about to-do lists as part of the first way to deal better with stress and we talked about the personal to-dos, and I want to talk about this again and I want to make a whole own way out of it, because making time for balance, for things that make you feel better, that make you feel more in line with yourself, it's so important and it's really easy to say, okay, I try to be balanced, I need balance in my life. That's so easy to to say, but you have to really take action on that, you have to make time for it. It's the same with workouts. I think we can make it so easy for ourselves to be busy 24 hours, seven days a week, and it's so easy to skip every single workout because we just don't make time for it. It's the same with calling my mom or calling my dad, like sometimes it's just a 10 or 15 minute call and I have the time. Every single day I have the time. But if I don't make the time for it, then it's really hard for me to actually get it done. So please make time for it. Make time for your workouts, make time for self-care, make time for yourself, for your friends, for your family, like. Make time for it. You have to take the action. Nobody can take this action step for you. You have to do it yourself. Whatever makes you feel healthy and happy, a team Like you have to make time for it yourself. All right.

Anna: 34:21

Tip number five what is my tip number five? Or my way number five? It's something I wish I would do more often. It is talking to someone. I want you to know after listening to this podcast episode that, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like that, but there's always someone you can talk to, Always, always, always within your friend circle, within your family, and, if not, maybe online. Maybe it's a simple website as betterhelpcom and you can talk to a therapist there, someone on the other side of the world, I don't know. I just want you to know that there's always someone you can talk to, always.

Anna: 35:02

I've had that feeling in the past that I felt like I don't have anyone, I'm lonely, nobody wants to talk to me or I have problems, but these problems is nothing that I want to talk about with someone, because these aren't real problems. That's that's often what I felt like, and I didn't want to bother someone. I didn't want to bother my friends or anyone from my team behind the scenes, but that falls, actually, it's so stupid. I want you to know that if there is some something on your mind and you want to talk to someone, just try it and just do it and I promise, I promise, I promise that there's always someone here for you who can help you, who can support you.

Anna: 35:44

I remember one special situation right now, like when it comes to voice messages. I had that one friend and, yeah, we just kept sending really, really long voice messages Whenever there was something on my mind or something that really stressed me. Then I just put out my phone on Sundays and I went out for a walk and I sent her a 30-minute voice message and she did the exact same. So we kept sending us these voice messages, but it felt so good. It felt so good. It felt like we're sending each other our own podcast memos. I don't know, it was really fun, and I want you to know that you can do the same. You can also send someone a voice message. Just try it and you can also send. Oh my God, that was one tip I've heard about that you can also send yourself a voice message If there is anything on your mind you really just want to get out. You can also send yourself a voice message and just let it out, and then delete the voice message or not, but just let it out and just talk it out. Yeah, I also quickly wanted to mention that it's also nice sometimes to just send yourself a voice message and just let out all the frustration. We are almost there. We are almost at the end of this podcast episode.

Anna: 36:54

Just two more tips, two more ways that I want to share with you, and the first one of these two of the two last ones is more business related. So everyone of you who is maybe also self-employed or is also really interested into work techniques or how to build a business, how to grow a business, how to be a better team leader, be a better manager, be a better worker I don't know I mean, we all have to work. So maybe this tip is relevant for all of you or for all of us. It's Ask for help if you need help, and especially as a self-employed person, especially when you start your own business, and you need to know at first you are your own boss, but you are also everything else. Like, for example, when I started my YouTube channel, I had been the creator, I had been the CEO of my company, I had been the writer, the planner, the director, the editor, like I was everything at once.

Anna: 37:54

And the crazy thing to me is that I also thought it has to be like that. Like only I can imagine what I want, like I only I have this business on my mind and I just can't let anyone else in because they won't understand and they won't do it the way I do it. So it was a lot of trust issues. It was a lot of I can't let go of. And the thing is, if you want more and if you want to grow, if you want to grow your business and level it up to the next level and the next stage, then at one point you just have to outsource things and you have to ask for help and you have to let go of these rules in your head that you are the only person in the world who can do these kind of tasks Like.

Anna: 38:38

Let me share one thing with you and let me tell you that there are people out there who can do so many things, so much better than you, and it's also such a good feeling to know that, like I love to think of my editor right now, my video editor on YouTube. He's the best. He's so much better than me. He he's just so good with editing and he's so good with the sound and he's so good with everything and I trust him so much and I know he's doing better than me and it's such a good feeling to send him the video files and he just gets the rest of it done. I couldn't do everything that I do right now if I wouldn't have this amazing team behind me. I'm not able to handle all the finances when it comes to business. I'm not able to edit all the videos that I post everywhere, and I'm not able to do any kind of contracts with businesses that we work with or companies that we work with Like.

Anna: 39:30

You need people in your life who are helping you. I think, especially when it comes to business when you have your own business, you need to let go of tasks, you need to trust people, but maybe that also is something relatable for people who also not have their own business you can always ask for help. You can always trust other people that they can help you and that they can do better than you, and it's such a relief makes me just smile. Right now I sit here. I smile because I think of how many days I had when I thought, oh my god, nobody can help me. But that's it's so, not true. People can help you and it's so good to know that there are people doing better than you and they can support you by doing better than you. Also one thing it's it's also so much more fun to just work with people and to have a team around you and to be not alone. And remember team, I said to you, there's always someone there for you to talk to or to help you, to support you. There's always someone you just have to be to help you, to support you. There's always someone. You just have to be open and you just have to look and take the action and search for the right people. And it might take some time and you might meet some people that you tried with and it doesn't work. But then there will be people at one point who you give another chance and then it works and then it's such an amazing workflow and it's so amazing to work together as a team, as a group, as a business.

Anna: 40:55

The last tip that I want to give you, the last tip I want to talk about, is I don't have an exact title for it, I just call it stop perfectionism. Yes, that's it. That's a good way to manage stress better. It's let go, be okay with different kind of things. Let go of this perfectionism. Stop perfectionism.

Anna: 41:21

I'm sure many of you are kind of like me, a little bit of a perfectionist. You try to be perfect, you try to do everything perfect. You try to do everything the way you imagine there. Then you just have this strong vision and the strong goal in your head and you want to do everything that it takes to do everything perfect and to just just reach your goal and to make this vision that you have in your head possible. I'm sure, yeah, we're kind of like the same in many different kind of ways, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Anna: 41:54

This perfectionism, like I want to get everything done and I want to do it the right way and I want to do it the perfect way. It is something that I think is sometimes good. It's good to have strong visions and you want to do everything perfect and you want to do it better than all the others. It's sometimes sometimes good, but also sometimes it can be really, really stressful, and I think it's really important to know when it's enough, when it's like, okay, I did my best, or I do my best every single day, and then beyond there would be like, okay, it's too much, it's like it can't be better right now.

Anna: 42:32

And there are external factors, like I'm just thinking of my video filming right now, when I film a video and I have to I have to rely on the weather, like I need, for example, a sunny day, and then there are clouds and the clouds mess up my video, then I just can't change it like it's an factor and I try to make this video so perfect, but there is this cloud and the cloud changes this whole video. It changes everything. And I try to make it so perfect and I care so much about it but nobody else cares, like my viewers, for example, for this video they won't even notice this cloud, they won't even care about this cloud. But I'm such a perfectionist and I want to make it just perfect and so good. It's such a stressful moment and if you are not aware of it and if you stress yourself out by tiny little things like that, you ruin yourself and you can't really enjoy the moment. You can't enjoy, in my case, the filming, you can't enjoy your work and just your life in general.

Anna: 43:33

Perfectionism, it's something that you have to let go of, because once you let go of the perfectionism, once you let go of this I have to be perfect, I have to do everything perfect then that's, that's freedom. Then you feel free. Trust me, you feel free. You feel like I sometimes feel like a bird when I just notice these moments of I want to do everything perfect, but then I hit the pause button and I'm like, no, I don't have to. You know what? I do the best I can today. I do my best and the best is enough. The best that I do today is enough, and it's such a free feeling I feel like a bird. Then I feel like a bird flying, feel like a bird. Then I feel like a bird flying and I'm like, yeah, that's how it should be. I do my best and the best that I do I want to say it one more time is enough. I feel so good now.

Anna: 44:22

I feel so good talking about these ways, and I also need those ways and those tips and those reminders sometimes, because, of course, I share it, as if I would do it all the time and every single time. But no, I think life is a lot of ups and a lot of downs and sometimes it's easier to deal with stress and sometimes it's harder. But I also need those moments sometimes to just sit down and be like all these reminders and all these moments of yeah, I just have to be aware of it, and then there are ways that can help me, and then just talking to you about all those different things, sharing experiences and sharing ways and sharing tips. It helps me as well, and I also hope like I really hope it also helped you. Just listening right now, I hope you got inspired and I hope you got motivated to also think of behaviors behaviors that you do every single day and that you want to get rid of or you want to change. I hope you got some motivation out of it.

Anna: 45:19

Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate that, especially if you're still with me, especially if you're still listening after this long episode. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for every single one here. Thanks for your ratings. I saw that we have more and more ratings here on this podcast, here on Today. I'm Growing. It means the world to me. I'm really, really grateful for this podcast. I'm really grateful for every single one of you, so just thank you. Thank you. I come to the point now. Thank you, team. Thank you so much for listening and we chat soon again. Let's chat soon. If you have any kind of feedback, let me know on Instagram. As always, you can text me, send me a DM and then see you or hear you next time. Okay, I stopped now. Bye, team. Thank you so much for being here. Bye.