When you numb your stress, you're also numbing your intuition
Every high-stress high achiever I know uses something to numb out their stress.
It could be a few drinks at the end of the day, a big bowl of ice cream at 10 pm, hours spent on Instagram or TikTok — or even doing more work!
Alcohol, ice cream, social media, emails — those things aren’t good or bad.
But in this case, they’re being used to block out the annoying, persistent background noise of stress and anxiety.
Now, I don’t want to take your stress-numbing mechanism away from you. I know the critical purpose it’s serving in keeping you sane.
But here’s what’s happening every time you turn to that numbing mechanism—
There is an alarm going off in your brain and body. An important message is trying to get through.
And the you’re using the alcohol / ice cream / social media / emails / etc. to put your earmuffs on so you don’t have to listen to the alarm.
What would you do if an alarm went off inside your house?
Would you put earmuffs on and try to block it out?
Or would you investigate and figure out what the alarm is trying to tell you?
Would you try to figure out…
Is it a fire alarm?
A carbon monoxide detector?
Someone breaking in through your window?
Just an old phone alarm you forgot to turn off?
If you put your earmuffs on, you’ll never find out!
And you certainly won’t be able to correct whatever is going wrong so that the alarm finally turns off.
(Or realize, “Oh, this alarm isn’t a big deal. I can safely ignore it, not a problem.”)
If you don’t investigate the alarm…
You’ll just be sitting in your house, putting more and more earmuffs on, working harder and harder to ignore that sound, and stressing yourself the heck out.
So here’s what I want you to do this week:
You don’t have to throw your earmuffs away.
You don’t have to listen to the alarm blaring all night.
But just for five minutes, before you put the earmuffs on…
Before you grab the drink, order the takeout, open Instagram, or log in to knock out some more emails…
LISTEN to the alarm your brain and body are sending you.
What is the message?
Just take five minutes to listen and write it down.
What is stressing you out?
What is the message your brain is trying to send you?
It might be a mundane message like, “I’m tired!”
It may be a scary message like “I think I’m on the wrong career path.”
Whatever the message is, just jot it down.
And if you’re not sure what to do with the message after you’ve written it down…
Come talk to me and let’s figure out how to resolve it.
You can get no-cost coaching from me with free anonymized public coaching.
This is a perfect option for some one-off spot support and a great way for you sample coaching and see how it resonates with you.
Or we can talk about working together in my one-on-one coaching program.
This is for when you want to go beyond one-off support, learn the full coaching toolkit end-to-end, and implement these principles in your day-to-day life.
What my clients have to say…
“I love our laughs. I love that it can be so efficient and professional, and yet I also feel like these sessions are pretty fun, and I really enjoy that.”
—Client | Startup Founder & Co-CEO
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