Are we ALL not OK?
Lately, I’ve been seeing quite a few posts that have a very similar headline and feel:
Parents of young children are not OK
Grocery store workers are not OK
Your child’s teacher is not OK
You get the idea. It seems as if daily a new subset of the population is highlighted for the ways they are experiencing burnout, frustration, anxiety and stress. Which has me thinking:
Are we ALL not OK?
Researching this topic would point to the idea that, as a collective society we are all stressed, frustrated, anxious, and tired. Try to find time with a qualified psychologist or mental health worker in your area and chances are you can’t.
From a mental health perspective we are clearly spent in ways we haven’t been in a lifetime. And those are the people who are seeking help; traditionally mental health has been an area surrounded by a stigma, leading people to not seek help. And not to add to that stress, but the situation is even worse for our youth. (As the parent of two young children, this is not a sentence I write lightly).
With a problem this big, how do we tackle this?
It is starts with acknowledging the issue.
We are NOT OK.
No matter where you are now, chances are your level of stress has increased since 2019. Acknowledge it. Sit with that for a minute, or two, or longer. We give you permission: it is OK to not be OK.
Once you realize it, my next question is how is this manifesting in you? Are you more tired than usual? More prone to binge eating? Have a shorter fuse? Struggling to focus?
Stress shows up differently for different people. Realizing how it shows up for you is important.
Once you realize how stress is showing up you can take stock of how frequently these behaviors are materializing. Once a month? Once a week? Once a day? More? The more often you are seeing this stressed induced behavior, the better that will give you an indicator or where you are in your stress tolerance zone. Then you can take steps to correct. Is this something that shows up infrequently? Is it something you can tackle on your own or do you need help or support?
These are all questions you can ask over the next few weeks. Once you have them answered, we will be back with another blog post regarding the difference in that support (from psychiatrist to friend and everyone in between, including how a coach can help!
Note: Some of you may say “hey I’m great, I’m not stressed at all!”. To which I say that’s amazing! Can you check in with your family and friends? Given the statistics, most likely they are struggling in some way.
