Beat October Overwhelm: 3 Steps for a Stress-Free Season

October is my favorite month. The colors of the leaves, the cooler weather (sweater weather), the festivals, apple picking, pumpkin picking, my birthday, and Halloween! I mean, come on; it can't get much better than that. It's also so crazy busy for me I tend to get completely overwhelmed. I have the garlic farm harvest, the festivals I do for the garlic and the skincare business, Soul Aligned Infusions, and the birthdays and fall fun.

This year I'm making sure I don't get stressed by taking a few steps that I'll be sharing with you today, and for the podcast tomorrow I'll be sharing a meditation to calm the mind and body that you can do every day, so be sure to tune into that.

As I said, this is a very busy time for me right now and it might be for you too. It might be busier during different times of the year for you. Whatever your busy time is, I want you to use these strategies to keep the nerves calm and have some smooth sailing fun! Because pretty much all my business is fun stuff. It’s just a lot of fun stuff all at the same time. So, let's get into it.

The first thing I decided that I will do is make the self-care come first before everything else. My walking, my nutrition, my rest, my meditation and breathwork, and my yoga. It all comes first. It's so easy for me to say that I'm just going to get right into all the stuff I have to do because there is so much and it is fun, but I know that I do this every year and every year I get overwhelmed, stressed, and sometimes even run-down and sick. Even though the business is fun stuff, the large amount of pressure to do all the things still can create stress in the body, so don't skip your self-care routine, whatever that is for you. As a matter of fact, you should lean into it or even do more. Keeping up with your everyday self-care helps to build resilience in your body and nervous system and immune system that we need when we're busy. Believe it or not, you'll actually get more done and have more fun when you keep up the self-care!

Be sure to tune into the podcast HERE to check out the meditation I shared for this exact reason.

The next thing is to prioritize the most important things to you. Before your week begins or your busy time, make time to write down everything that you want to do and need to do, and then you're going to clean up this list. You're going to do what I call the Three D's: Ditch, Delegate, and Do. So, what can you ditch altogether or push into a less busy time? What can you delegate to someone else, and what do you absolutely want and need to DO?

As an example, what can I ditch? Well, right now I'm in the middle of redesigning my website. This will get pushed to November or December; why would I do this right now? What can I delegate? Can I hire someone to do my social media? To clean the house? Instead of cooking dinner every night, can I meal prep? These are some ways to delegate. Then what am I doing? Well, what feels aligned? I'm going to put aside some time to see how some of these events feel to me in my body. When I think about it, do I feel excited, expansive? Or do I feel heavy and stressed? You'd be surprised how your body will instantly reveal exactly what you should be spending your time on. Pay attention to the way things make you feel and shift things accordingly.

One of the biggest issues that a lot of people have, including myself, is we ignore our bodies, we ignore the signs, we are ignoring our intuition. So, from now on, make a promise to yourself to honor what your body is telling you. If going out for a rager on your birthday sounds like a bad idea and you'd rather have a nice lunch and go thrifting, then follow your heart (body).

Last but not least, stick with high-quality nutrition and make sure you're getting enough rest. This is something we all know but don't always do. Once again, myself included. I'm really good with nutrition, but the rest thing, I'm so bad. Sometimes when I'm excited about something, I don't sleep well. So I'll be stepping up my sleep time etiquette. This includes turning the lights down at about 8pm, no screen time 2 hours before bed, and a bedtime routine. My routine can be reading, herbal tea, and sometimes some yin yoga and a bath.

With the nutrition, focus on eating real whole food for most meals, skipping the alcohol or keeping it to a minimum, and not overeating too much. It really can be that simple. If you're more interested in what I mean by "Real Whole Foods," let me know. This can be another whole blog post/podcast episode.

Which practices will you be adding during your busy season to keep your mind, body, and soul in a state of harmony?

To get more support and join me for some great self-care practices, visit me over on my Patreon, Soul Aligned Life, where you can join the community for free or jump into one of the many tier options. A free trial is available right now!

Xo, T