StrongSensitiveSouls.com

GUIDE TO REDUCINGSTRESS & OVERWHELM

StrongSensitiveSouls.com

Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in reviews.

StrongSensitiveSouls.com

Life can feel so stressful and overwhelming at times.

Family obligations. Work requirements. Life goals.

Never ending to-do lists reminding us of what we’ve yet to achieve. Emails flooding our inboxes. Requests for our limited time pouring in endlessly.

If you’re sensitive by nature, as I am, overwhelm is likely something you struggle with daily. And while I truly believe sensitivity is a gift, overwhelm may be its greatest enemy. You want to do everything to the best of your ability. Please everyone who’s counting on you. Give your all.

But before you know it, you’re wiped out and can’t seem to get a thing done.

Life shouldn’t feel so draining. We have such a limited amount of minutes on this earth.

A limited amount of time to feel joy, love deeply and cherish gentle moments. The everyday moments that matter the most.

If stress and overwhelm are burdening you, below are 16 simple ways to help ease that overwhelm, so you live more peacefully and confidently as a sensitive soul.

  1. Prioritize your needs. Sensitive souls naturally put others needs before their own.

We want those closest to us to be happy. We want to make sure everyone is taken care of. We want to give our all to those who are counting on us.

These are all wonderful traits. But in the process, our needs can get left behind.

I’ve struggled with this a lot. Whether I was giving my all to my job or to my children, I would allow my needs to take a backseat (or no seat at all). I got fulfillment from making others feel happy and supported, but a part of me was always left feeling empty and unsettled. It got to the point where I just couldn’t go on like that any more.

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I now make prioritizing my needs an essential part of my life so that my health, desires and dreams don’t get lost in the shuffle.

If you struggle with this as well, I challenge you to find a way to add your needs to the top of your to-do list.

It is not selfish to do so, you will feel so much more fulfilled in life, and the support and love you give to others will be stronger, because you are stronger.

2. Honor your emotions.  Sensitive souls are emotional beings, but we’re often taught to hide our emotions, which is such a shame.

Our emotions are powerful. They are mighty and abundant. They are our happiest moments and our deepest agonies. They are full of lessons our souls need to learn. They are everything.

We are our emotions. And our emotions are us. And yet we shame them. We tell ourselves what we “should” and “should not” feel. We try to bury them so that we don’t appear “too emotional.” We hide them so we can keep the peace.

But they’re still there, living deep within us. And the more we try to ignore them, the more stress and anxiety brew within us. Honor your emotions. Feel them. Let them guide you.

What do they long for? Where do they want to lead you? What do they want you to stay away from?

Use your emotions to create roadmaps for your life. Let them determine your daily actions, so that you can feel the way you want to feel, every single day.

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3. Find what’s easy. I used to feel like life had to be hard.

If you weren’t struggling through something, you weren’t challenging yourself enough. But the truth is, I had it all wrong.

It’s great to challenge yourself, but life shouldn’t feel like a constant uphill battle.

I used to work as a corporate attorney. Everyday felt like a distasteful challenge. So many aspects of that career pushed against my natural grain.

Now that I’m working as an editor and writer, my work flows easily. I’m still challenged everyday to bring my best and to learn more, but the nature of the work suits me perfectly. I can relax into the challenge, instead of wanting to hurl with anxiety. Find what’s easy for you, work that suites and honors your soul.

4. Nurture your confidence.Life is so drastically short. Don’t waste time hating yourself and beating yourself up for every little thing. Doing so only leads to a life filled with regrets.

Accept who you are. Push yourself to grow, but do it because you love yourself and you want to live the best life imaginable, not because you wish you were someone you’re not.

We all have parts of our soul we need to heal. Work on those areas but do so compassionately, without judgement or shame.

So many of us spend so much of our lives drowning in insecurities and self-loathing. It’s such a shame and creates so much unnecessary stress in our lives.

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Honor the sacred minutes of your life by loving who you are and all that you have to offer the world.

5. Ask for what you want. Sensitive souls are people pleasers until the end.

Asking for what we want does not always come naturally. But doing so is essential for a peaceful life.

Countless times throughout my life I allowed others to dictate my actions. Letting those who are more vocal and dominant in their personalities lead the course. And each time, it caused endless angst and anxiety within me.

After years of this, my anxiety became too much. I decided that I couldn’t live with that type of stress any more. I deserved to have a voice.

Asking for what you want isn’t always comfortable. It requires confidence, presence and resilience. But with the right words, it can be done elegantly and gently and prove to be a win-win for all.

6. Make peace with fear.We all have fears. They can be overwhelming and scary. But the truth is, we need them.

Fears protect us, guide us and keep us alive. Fears don’t have to be viewed as such an enemy. Without them, we’d unlikely be here today.

So empower yourself. Make peace with your fears. Work with them instead of against them. Instead of allowing them to block your goals, learn from them. Figure out what they’re trying to protect you from, and find peaceful solutions.

You’ll never get rid of all our your fears, it’s impossible, so don’t wait for that day.

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Instead, learn to move forward with them, right there, by your side.

7. Make changes slowly.We all have changes we long to make. But drowning ourselves in monstrous goals leads to nothing but mind numbing overwhelm.

For every change you want to make, ask yourself: “What’s the easiest way I can accomplish this?”

Monstrous changes don’t get made, they simply haunt you. Slow and steady changes can alter your entire life.

Take it slow. Make it easy.

8. Accept what is. There are certain things in life we simply cannot change, no matter how hard we try.

The way someone behaves around you. The health conditions you or your loved ones are inflicted with. The obligations you have.

Trying to force change where it’s simply impossible is an energy draining unachievable task.

We each get dealt certain cards in life. Cards we wish we could swap out, but we can’t. So it’s up to us to find other ways to make peace with those cards.

Surrender to what is, but make adjustments that support your wellbeing.

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9. Focus on what’s important. We have such a limited amount of time each day.

For me, this has never felt more true than since I become a mother to my two young daughters. Time seems to elude me, sucked away by diaper changes, endless chores and more laughter, joy and tantrums than I thought possible for one lifetime.

When I look back on how I used to spend my days before motherhood, I almost can’t believe how much time I used to waste. Time pouring through social media, time agonizing over trivialities, time letting others direct my choices.

Time is fleeting. Time is precious. Time is irreplaceable.

Focus on what’s most important to you, and let go of the rest.

10. Stop repeating the same mistakes.We all repeat mistakes. They become patterns engraved in our behavior that seem almost impossible to end. And so they show up time and time again, sabotaging the lives we truly want.

Identify those mistakes. Write them down. Flesh them out in meticulous detail. Move them from your subconscious to your conscious so that they stop sneaking up on you. And make peace with them. Understand why they keep showing up in your life. What they’re trying to make you avoid or lead you to. And why they always end up hurting you. Then find a better way. Ignoring mistakes only allows them to keep occurring. Get to know those little life-suckers intimately, and you’ll find ways to create new patterns.

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11. Forget about the race. Sometimes it feels like we’re all in a race. A race of our own making.

A race to find success. To make the most money. To have the most stuff. To be the happiest.

Social media encourages us to publicly live out this quest for success and happiness. Jealousy seduces us to long for goals that aren’t even ours.

We get caught in the race, a race of comparison. A race that no one actually wants to participate in. A race that no one can ever win.

Leave the race. Heck, leave Facebook if you need to. Figure out what you want out of life and honor it. That’s it.

12. Forgive yourself.  We all carry the burdens of our screw ups, our human-ness, our regrets.

They keep us stuck in the past. They torture us with reminders of our inadequacies. They pester us with shame.

It’s so easy to say "let them go," but it’s not so easy to do.

What you can do is find the lessons in them.

What did those mistakes teach you? How can you learn from them? How can you adapt your behavior going forward? How can you grow?

If you can grow from each and every mistake, then they weren’t wasted.

In fact, they may have been necessary for creating type of life you deserve and long for.

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13. Breath deeply.When life feels brutal. When relationships feel painful. When work feels impossible. Pause and breathe.

Breathe deeply, eyes closed, filling up your lungs and gut with oxygen. Feel your stomach rise.

Keep breathing until you feel at ease. Until the answers come. Until you can move forward. Just breathe.

It’s the simplest and most effective way to dissipate stress and overwhelm. Just breathe.

14. Create Rituals. Our rituals guide our lives and our relationships. So create rituals that honor your goals and your feelings. Make them simple and easy to maintain. A glass of tea. A morning hug. Five minutes of exercise or two minutes of meditation are better than none at all.

A ritual can be as simple as the way you say I love you.

I want my daughters to always know how much I love them. Every night at bed time, before I leave their rooms, I ask “How much do I love you?” And every night, they each answer, “So much.” It’s our little ritual, among many, that helps to ground us. Create easy rituals that fill each day with the gentleness and simplicity you long for.

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15. Draft life rules.Just as we create rituals for our life, we can create rules for our life too.

Rules that we honor, to help life feel the way we want it to.

Things we don’t do. People we set boundaries with. Time we protect.

Create rules that protect the way you want to feel everyday. Write them down. Read them over constantly. If you break them and feel the consequences, resolve to try harder next time.

Honor the rules you create, because they honor you.

16. Ease into joy.  Make joy a priority. Joy shouldn’t wait for “one day.” Joy should be everyday.

You may not have all the money you wished for. You may not have the partner you’ve been longing for. You may not have the prestige you sometimes envy. But joy exists independently of those things. If you can’t find joy without them, you’ll unlikely find joy with them.

Find your joy today. Joy in the small moments. Joy in the pauses between breathes. Joy in the silence. Joy in the noise. Joy in the everyday. And protect the simplicity of that joy. Eliminate all that depletes you. Set boundaries with those who drain you. Relish in the people and things that nurture your soul.

Joy doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be simple, ordinary, everyday moments. So don’t wait for joy to come into your life, joy is already there, waiting for you to see it.

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You Can Thrive as a Sensitive Soul Life doesn’t have to feel so stressful and overwhelming. It can be filled with simple, gentle moments.

It takes work and mindfulness, all the best things in life do, but it’s worth it.

Go slowly. Breathe deeply. Ease in.

Honor yourself and your emotions. Find what’s easy. Prioritize your needs and ask for what you want in life.

Create the rules and rituals that will guide you. And find the simple joys in your everyday.

Before you know it, your stress and overwhelm will subside, and the strengths of your sensitive soul will flourish.

It's been a pleasure writing this for you. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share this link with them.

I'd love to hear what you thought about this e-book and what your greatest struggles are with respect to being a sensitive soul. I'd be so grateful if you would fill out a quick survey here:

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It's only a few questions so it should just take a few minutes of your time.

Thanks so much for reading these words. I hope they help you to create a life that honors your sensitive soul and is full of gentleness and peace.

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I’m Liz.

I write to help sensitive souls feel stronger...

and to inspire people to embrace the gentler sides of life.

StrongSensitiveSouls.com

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