Friday, January 27, 2012

Take the Pressure Off

Today's Thought of the Day from www.innerspace.org.uk popped in my mail box this morning and it resonated with me.

It said 'Often, it's not really the people or having too much to do that creates pressure in life.  It's your working and living habits that need tweaking. No one and nothing can make you feel pressured without your permission!'

When you stop to think about the pressure you are under, ask yourself who's putting the pressure on here?  What is the real source of the pressure?  Is it time?  Is it another person's needs?  Or is it from yourself?   Many a time it is likely to come from you yourself.   Pressure you place on yourself to keep up appearances, to conform to society's rules about how you should be behaving as a certain type of person such as being a mum, acting in your professional capacity, a partner, a widow or whatever your labels are.   Invariably any action that has a "I should do, ought to, must do" in the front of it will create unwanted pressure.  Who says you should, ought, must?

In the grand scheme of things do these 'things' that we feel pressured to do really matter?  Are there daily rituals and habits you can tweak or simply stop that will have little negative impact, if any, and may in fact cut out the pressure all together.   Are there things that you can let slide? 

It may be that the daily rituals and habits are so deeply ingrained in your patterns of behaviour that simply stopping is not as easy as just 'simply stopping' as they intertwine tightly with your core values and beliefs, and past experiences.  If, when you begin to explore the real root cause of the pressure and you find that it is linked to a fundamental core belief or value that you hold, then you may wish to enlist the help of a coach who can guide you through breaking that link and taking the pressure off.


Next time you're feeling under pressure ask yourself what is this really about?  Can I let it go?

Until next time..