Transition from career to Home life was probably easier for me than most. I had been teaching little kid’s for over seven years when I hung up my dancing shoes and came home for the role of “Manager of children’s lives and CEO of household”.
However, any shift is just that. Transitions are things that mark you. They make you, break you, or create you. Recently, we have all come into a transitioning phase in our world. One that has impacted us.
In order to grow and mature we must stretch ourselves past our strengths. The season of Covid-19 did that for me. I suddenly found myself in a position that I never saw or imagined for myself. All our dreamy travel plans gone, $ became tight, and now on top of completing a writing deadline goal, I was also homeschooling my two children! One of them was in the middle of learning to read!
As you can imagine dealing with a highly demanding job and then adding the emotional toll of all day child development and growth took its toll. My attitude was all over the place. Just 4 years ago I had two babies under 2 and was working on my coaching practice and doing my certifications while also running two small groups. Yet now, I couldn’t pivot. This season wasn’t much different from the one back when I had them 24/7 and worked from home. Why could I not so easily rearrange this season?
Bottom line, I wasn’t prepared for it. Often when transitions happen, the one’s that we struggle with the most are the transitions we can’t plan for. A Health crisis, a job loss, or a circumstance we can’t fix. These things throw us off greater than a transition we are prepared for. Like a move or a planned pregnancy. In all transitions, no matter how prepared we are, we can hit a low. However, the one’s we struggle to thrive in are the ones connected to an emotional hit.
Emotional Exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion leads to physical exhaustion. You then are no longer able to continue at the same level of output that you once had. This almost always leads to affecting your engagement with people, including yourself. So what do you do to stay on top of it all when you are emotionally burned out? To be accomplished, and courageous, and resilient in any situation, I use these simple strategies!
How to Cope with an Emotionally Demanding Job:
- Give Yourself a Get Out of Jail Card:
I gave myself and my kids an entire day off every single week. Usually, it was Friday. I didn’t do laundry, or make them do school work. We made sure to do it all in a four day work week instead of five. We played games, read books, ate popcorn, and took bike rides. Taking frequent breaks helped me to regain control over my emotions when confronted with the stressful situation we found ourselves in.
- Exercise:
I gave myself permission to have 1 hour everyday for working out. When things get crazy I tend to cut this time shorter or even completely out. It seems like such a luxury, to give myself this. What we fail to see is that this time for exercise is crucial to invest in if we want to run at a higher level of accomplishment!
- Prayer and Stretching Techniques:
Using prayer, meditation (listening to God), deep breathing and stretching (yoga and ballet), helped me reduce my body’s natural response to the circumstances I found myself in. These actually strengthened my skills emotionally and spiritually! The activities I chose to do gave me greater calm and resolve to stay fully engage in my now!
In conclusion, as we splash into summer, let us remember to be positive, practice exercise and prayer, strengthen our resilience with stretching ourselves, and give ourselves a break!
Creating Exceptional 