I’m an addict. I’m addicted to stress and the suffering stress brings. I thought I was recovered but this week, with start of Pesach (Passover) prep, I relapsed, and I didn’t even notice it for a couple of days. The constant “buzz” in my body, the hurry in my steps, feelings of overwhelm and tightness in my jaw were familiar sensations. I welcomed them like an old friend.

After my third sleepless night, I began my morning journal pages in search of the culprit. Why have I stepped back into the nightly routine of sleeplessness? It hasn’t been a real issue in years. I started to attribute it to a 10:30pm call on April 15th from my son in college in another state with a panicked, “Mom! I forgot to do my taxes!” We stayed up pasted midnight fighting time and the IRS deadline. Three hours later I was awaken by a phone call from his security monitoring company that there was an alarm going off at his home and he was not answering his phone. I spent the rest of the night calling, texting and worrying. I finally heard from him when he got up at 9am for class and realized all that was going on. My heavy sleeper son silenced his phone, he didnt even hear the alarm.

Yes, that was a sleepless night, and reasonably so. But, if I was honest, it started a couple days before. I sank into the “buzz” that was in my body and BAM, that was it. The addiction to busyness, stress, hurry, the To Do List in my head, the planning, and the feeling of lack of time had returned. I know them well. We had been roommates for a long time. I thought I had kicked her out, but here she was again. The reality is, I had structured my life better, practiced mindfulness, but the addiction was still there.

Like any addiction, it will always be there. My job is to recognize the signs and be pro active to take my hand off the fire and not linger in the stress.

Here are my tools:

1. Learn to recognize the signs in my body quickly. For me it is an anxiety “buzz” in my body, hurried motions, tightness in my jaw and thousands of thoughts at a time. Stress is going to show up. Our job is to recognize the physical signs so we can address it quickly.

2. Meditate 20 minutes daily. Learn to be present, bringing your thoughts back to your breath. If you don’t have a meditation practice, contact me at hadassahbauer7@gmail.com and I will send you an audio file of one of my favorite meditations.

3. Daily Journaling. Journal how you want your day to flow. Journal what you are grateful for. Journal how you want to feel and show up each day.

4. Take your Hand off the Fire. Just like you would not keep your hand in a burning fire, you don’t want to stay in a state of stress. As soon as you realize you are feeling stress, STOP, bring yourself into the moment. Use one of your 5 senses to focus on something. It can be a sound in the room, an object, the texture of something, a smell, or your breath. Concentrate on it. If your thoughts wonder, bring it back to whatever you are focusing on. Continue to practice focusing on the sensation until you are feeling less stressed. The more you utilize this practice, the faster it will work. Keep practicing!

These four steps can transform any stress addict into a stress-free superhero. Being stress free is now my superpower and it can be yours too! If you need some help with your emotional addictions, schedule a free 30-minute consultation and let’s make a plan to put you in recovery. Schedule here.