My kids really stress me out.
No, this is not fair. What is more accurate to say is that interacting with my children in certain situations causes a stress response in my body. But more about kids a bit later in the post.
I have previously written about my first day of testing a stress-monitoring device by Linkura (see here).
I've been using the device and app for just over a week now and here is what I have discovered since then. It’s incredibly helpful to see which activities create mental stress and which activities show up as relaxation time.
My graphs show moderate to high levels of mental stress while engaged in my work-related activities. I’m looking forward to my first session with my Linkura coach to go through my measurements and understand this more.
Looking at the graphs in more detail, I could see my fika breaks as relaxation time on certain days depending on where I was and what else I was doing.
The graph showed that I was exercising when I was walking the dog and walking in the city to get from place to place.
No surprises so far.
The biggest surprise for me was that it showed high relaxation levels when I’m doing the laundry. Oh my! What does my feminist side say about this? I am not at all keen on household chores! But, if I take some time and reflect on this a bit more, I guess this is one activity where I am solely focussed on only one thing and I rather enjoy the action of folding dry, clean laundry and packing it away. (Marie Kondo would be proud.)
It also shows that family meal-times are quite stressful for me. It’s usually the time of day that I feel like I am juggling the most. The dog is hungry and ready to eat. The kids are hungry and restless and trying to find pre-supper snacks. I’m trying to focus and get something done but my attention gets pulled away by one thing or another.
The main insight for me was that I am not at all relaxed when I’m eating. I’m too busy intervening in messy eating, or kids not eating (my daughter prefers talking to eating) or arguments, or the dog trying to jump up at the table, and all sorts of other things that can happen at supper-time.
This reminds me of a friend who feeds her children first and then has her own meal alone afterwards so that she can enjoy her meal in peace and quiet. She says when it’s kiddie meal time, it’s like the vultures are descending!
As a parent with two young kids, what stresses me out the most is those interactions where I’m trying to achieve a specific objective and these children, with their own minds, have an entirely different objective in mind!
My next post will be an update on my insights following my Linkura personal coaching session.
So, what stresses you out?
Any questions, thoughts or musings on your own day, please post in the comments or join me in a one-to-one conversation!