Our Story Stress is a Drug and I Just Relapsed

Stress is a drug and I just relapsed.

I built MotherBar with the mission to make stress optional – tools, advice, and an effective product to help manage the effects of stress on the body and mind.

I built MotherBar because I personally get stressed and need my own solution.

I built MotherBar as a daily reminder to practice what I preach.

But nothing, not even my new post-it note reminders placed around the house were enough this time around.

I let stress get the best of me. And here’s what happened…

I threw out my back.

I knew I was stressed last week. I could feel it in my body, in my racing mind, my poor sleep, and my short fuse.

I was doing all the right things to manage stress, but I was going through the motions. I wasn’t actually listening.

I was putting a band-aid on stress and hoping for the best.

I got caught up in the rush and exhilaration of stress hormones. And the result is this…

I’m on day 6 of incredible back pain. Almost every position hurts. I had to cancel an important work trip and I’m basically confined to lying on the floor or walking around slowly with an ice pack sticking out of the top of my pants.

At first, the injury just made me feel more stressed. Disappointment. Frustration. Annoyance.

And then after a lot of hours staring at the ceiling with nothing to do but reflect, I realized, it’s happening for me, not to me.

If my body had a voice, this is what it'd say….

“If you’re going to run around high on stress, I am going to do what I need to force you slow down and remember what’s really important.”

It’s NOT that email, social post, powerpoint deck, load of laundry, important meeting, or get together with friends that's important....

It’s you.

Take care of yourself.
Not second.
Not last.
Not eventually.
But first.

I knew in my gut that I should've slowed down. I had a ping earlier in the week but I didn’t listen. So like our friend Oprah says, instead of continuing to throw pebbles, the universe eventually threw me a big ol' brick.

And here I am. Lesson learned. Again.

Let me be your reminder to listen to your body.

It’s SO easy to get caught up in stress. To rush from one thing to the next.

Doing.
Doing.
Doing.

Put the goddamn phone down and just be. Actually prioritize rest instead of just saying you will. 

Otherwise, I guarantee your body will force you to. You'll get a cold, an injury, or an illness. It's just a matter of time.

(views from my back) 

So what's my big takeaway? Surrender. 

Listen to the signs. Heed the warnings. And don't half-ass rest. 

When you rest, you must give into your body or as mindset coach Phillip Attar says, "Embody rest."

To rest, you must listen, become present, and release control. This type of rest is active, it's intentional, and it takes work. It takes 100% of your focus.

In an effort to make rest easy, I had bypassed the actual work. 

So friends, I'm off to take my own medicine (aka Moment mints) and follow my own advice. No more multi-tasking while I'm resting. Only focused and intentional rest. Embodiment of rest. A complete surrender to rest. 

I'm waving the white flag to rest and I invite you to too.