Rufus Runs You Ragged

Do you ever feel like you're just treading water on your personal to-do list?

 

Rufus gets a kick out of watching you mentally struggle through your day-to-day tasks and stress about what is left to get done. It is one of his all time favorite states for you to be in.

 

Why?

 

When you are that stressed about everything, your prefrontal cortex is impaired! That's where your brain organizes, strategizes, and makes decisions! Guess where else stress effects?

 

The areas of your brain thought to be responsible for motivation, learning, and memory!

 

WHOA! 🤯That's a doozy!

 

Rufus LOVES when you are stressed and running yourself more and more ragged as you continue on this chaotic warpath like a chicken with your head cut off.

 

So, how do you combat it?

 

One way that I have found works is making a triage list. Writing down what you need to get done that day or that week and marking them in order by priority of what needs to get done. But how do we get to that level of brain power when our brain has been compromised by Rufus?

 

Have you ever heard of grounding exercises? Generally, they are discussed for people suffering from clinical levels of depression, anxiety, and other severe mental health concerns, but anyone's brain can benefit from grounding itself in reality. The purpose of many of the exercises is to ground yourself in the physical reality of your environment to then be able to ground yourself in the newfound (and calmer) mental reality.

 

Take a pause, do some deep breathing, actively use your five senses. Find things you can hear, see, touch, taste, and smell using the 5-4-3-2-1 method. Pets can be a great comfort and blessing during this exercise. Laughter is also a great choice of medicine! And to finish, I need you to say one of the hardest things to say to yourself, something kind! Yes, you are having a hard time, but you are doing the best you can. And everything is going to be okay.

 

Don't let Rufus run your mind and body ragged. Recognize him, ground yourself, and you will find you're more up to the task than you ever believed to be.