Exhausted by Multitasking? Try Mindfulness Instead

ARCHIVED - Friday, September 23rd, 2016

Is Your Life a Constant Struggle to Get everything Done?

Mine often feels like that. It’s not that you don’t make an effort.

You prioritize tasks with “To-Do” lists (which often seen to just keep getting longer)
You multi-task whenever you can and where does that leave you at the end of the day.
Often feeling tired and frazzled, but unable to relax because of all the extra stress chemicals running in your system.

The problem with Multi-Tasking

It sends your mind into overdrive, and that triggers your body to generate extra stress chemicals to get you running at a zillion miles an hour to get everything done. Sure, it makes you feel energized but only for a while.
Your mind is trying to help but it’s working with some pretty outdated software, the bodies fight and flight mechanism. An adrenal rapid response system that evolved in our caveman days, designed to deal with short term threats from predators that either ended with being killed and eaten, or managing to escape. Either way the threat did not last long or once it was over the body recognized it was safe to relax and have some R and R.

Well! that’s Hardly the Situation Today.

Today we all live in an “invisible soup” of electromagnetic energies that we are not consciously aware of but which constantly trigger and activate our bodies alarm system at a subliminal level.
They create a constant state of hypervigilance and adrenal alert in the body and deny the body the natural cycle of relaxation and regeneration it needs after its alarm system has been triggered.

Add Your TimePoor Life Situation

Who isn’t TimePoor these days?
Do you find yourself multi-tasking more and more .You can find yourself doing it do it just to generate a basic income to support yourself /family, and pay the mortgage/rent.
Faced with this sort of challenge Multi-tasking can sound like a good idea but the extra stress chemicals it generates as you try to focus on several different tasks at once can send your body/mind into a state of overwhelm and anxiety as you worry whether you can meet all those deadlines.
At the end of the day you end up feeling tired and frazzled. You’re exhausted but unable to sleep because of the extra adrenaline still running in your system.
Over time all this can take its toll and if you don’t recognize what is happening you can risk overwhelm and exhaustion and ultimately burn out.

So what about a Change of Plan

What if SLOWing down and FOCUSING on ONE action at a time could get things done faster and did not leave you feeling wired and exhausted at the end of the day?………It’s called Mindfulness and it’s ……………..

”When on earth do I have time to do mindfulness . I hardly have time to brush my hair in the morning much less slow down and meditate “

OK……I can hear you……. but what if I showed you a form of mindfulness you can do with your eyes open while you’re tidying the house or washing the dishes?

“And how is that different from Multitasking?” …..

It’s very different and a lot easier to do. When you do it you focus on being fully present and focused on the actions of the task that you are doing. You can do it any time you are doing an automatic task that you can do on auto pilot.

You can do it when you are washing up……tidying the kids toys ……… organising your filing at work…………….driving…………

Time to Give Your Mind a Break.

Each time you focus on becoming fully present and mindful of what you are doing , you are doing just that…..
You’re giving you mind a break.
When you focus fully in this way there is nothing for your mind to think about neither regrets and criticisms about what you did in the past or worries or anxieties about what you have to do in the future .
It gives you time to focus on what you are doing in the moment without your mind feeling it needs to catastrophise and the create back up plans B C D and E to cover every problem or hiccup that could possibly arise .

It takes a bit of practice at the beginning but once they try it people start to feel calmer and more centred. Things often get finished faster as you don’t have the distraction of your mind mentally obsessing about what you have to do next.

Your mind does not like take a break but sometimes that’s just what it needs.
And taking a break is what your body needs even more than your mind.
Doing this can be a life saver for your stress levels
it gives your body a chance to reset itself and stop churning out stress chemicals that lock you into a state of feeling tense and wired all the time.

Mindfulness is a Valuable Resource

It is increasingly becoming recognized as a simple easy healing practice you can use to save your sanity in today’s high pressured busy world.
You can call on it whenever you want improved focus and clarity to get stuff done and at the same time doing it gives your body the bonus of a much needed break.
Your body will love you for it and be more ready and able to quickly support you the next time you need a quite shot of adrenaline for yet another rapid response task that has added itself to your to do list.

Over to You

I’d love to hear your comments and any additional advice or resources you have found work for you and I’m sure others would too. So click below to leave a reply and join the conversation.