When Being Busy Becomes A Coping Skill

💫 Albania’s Newsletter | Holistika Embodiment

For all things mind, body, soul, and spirituality

⏲️ 4.2 minute read

We are all busy. 

Feeling like we don’t have enough time for ourselves. 

Yes, this can be true for a day or so. 

But when busy becomes our norm, and we leave no room for rest, we have a problem.

Busy becomes our identity. Busy becomes our coping skill. 

In this letter, you will get:

• What’s the nervous system's response to being busy?

• Using business as a coping skill

• Simple steps to support your nervous system to regulation

What’s the nervous system’s response to being busy?

There is no denying that work has many demands, on top of our family, errands, keeping up with finances, taking care of our pets, and friends. 

The state of constant movement is an indicator of a trauma response. Hello flight response.

The body becomes accustomed to constant movement. Leaving little reserves to recuperate and rejuvenate —not great for preventing stress, burnout, illness. 

The body thinks it’s running away from a threat, and when there is no threat outside of the body, then it feels threatened inside (e.g. the heart racing, running thoughts, constriction, etc.). 

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can re-teach the body to start regulating bit by bit.

Busy as a coping skill

Being busy can easily become a strategy to not feel. What might you be trying to avoid feeling?

If you grew up in a family where you witnessed that being busy meant being successful, then that might be an outdated story you are telling yourself. 

You want to get curious about your answers to this question: “What does it mean about me if I were to slow down?” 

Notice how your body responds to this question first.

Do you feel a tightness anywhere? Even numbness?

When you bring awareness to the problem, you have the opportunity to start learning a new way of being with the part of you that is the busy-bee. 🐝 

Here are 3 tips to support your nervous system:

1. Do less. You might think you need to do more things and check them off your to-do list so you feel more regulated, but that’s not the case. What can you delegate to another person? Can you schedule your week, so that you can spread out what you need to complete? 

2. Slow down. Can you walk a little slower than usual for each thing you do? Slowing down is meeting your flight response where it’s at, and getting curious, what happens if you slow the movements down a bit. Is this tolerable?

3. Nourish Your Body. Eat less sugar and processed foods, that can leave you feeling unwell and fatigued. Be moderate in your intake of these foods. Decrease caffeine intake, as this can activate the stress response. Hydrate with water. When we are in a stress response, our fluids deplete. 

Last thoughts

There is no shame in this pattern of being busy.

We can all get caught up fairly quickly if we don’t get really serious about how we want to live our life - it’s short.

If we don’t slow down to reflect and contemplate and restructure our days, then our body will let us know with a shout that it wants you to slow down. Don’t let that be the case. 

We are all in this together, and each time, we get better at being human. 

Hope you enjoyed this.

✌️ 🫶 ,

Albania