We all know what it’s like to be busy and stressed.
I don’t know about you, but in the times when I am the most busy, everything is just so chaotic.
I don’t have peace.
It feels like a lot going on when I’m busy.
And when I am stressed, it’s really hard to think.
It’s hard to process and to manage my emotions.
That’s why today I’m going to talk about ways to handle busyness and to handle stress.
Since I was preparing to have my first-ever surgery I felt stressed to the max and I have found myself not being able to gain my balance.
I have found myself not eating well, not exercising, not sleeping well, and forgetting to do certain things because it’s a very stressful time before having surgery.
I’ve already had it and I’m healing, but the process is very stressful and it caused me to be extremely busy because for my business to run and my team to be able to operate in my absence, I had so many things that I needed to do before the surgery.
In addition to the things from my business, I still had to work with my clients.
I’m still the face of the company, so I still had to create things for marketing that were happening currently.
I also had to work on all the things that my doctor needed me to do to be prepared for surgery, like tests.
Besides that, I had to prepare my house and have every single thing I could think of in the house for recovery.
I had to watch a ton of different videos from all these people on YouTube who had the same surgery, so I could be led and guided through things that they wished they would have done.
Because of the stress and anxiety of having surgery, it still feels insane.
But these are some of the things that I did to prepare for all that was to happen.
1. One of the first things that I did was to say to myself: “Okay, I am getting ready to go into a busy time, a stressful time and I’ve got to prepare for this.” Then, what I first did was to tell my team what was about to happen.
I reached out to them and said this is what I’m going to need you to do.
I don’t have it all planned out, but I’m going to plan it.
I need you to make a list of questions about everything you need to know for me.
Since I was going to be out, I wanted them to ask all the questions they needed to know in advance.
Then I had to make a list of everything I needed to do for my team to be able to operate in my absence.
2. Then I had to make a list of the type of help I needed in my house.
How long do I need help? Who do I know that could give me help?
What groups am I a part of that I can ask for support?
I had to be in my right mind to make those lists.
Before starting to make all those lists, I had to go and say to God: I am stressed, I am anxious. I am afraid of having surgery and I don’t know what’s going to happen.
I had to just dump everything that I was feeling onto God.
- The first thing I did was journal it all the time
I had to get all this stuff out of my head, out of my heart, and on paper.
So once I journaled it, then I just cried about it.
I cried and cried because I believe in releasing stress, anxiety, and emotions through crying.
Then I said, God, let’s talk about this while I’m crying.
And I talked to him about everything that I was feeling and thinking.
I did that every single day.
And then I started making the lists and also getting the lists from my team.
Also, I kept in mind that I have 2 podcasts You, Me and Jesus and The Kennya Kelly Podcast, and things to create for my YouTube channel.
So I made an exhaustive list trying to get everything done for the whole month of December.
I normally do not record videos every day but I decided to create one every single day.
Was it exhausting? Yes.
There were some days when I didn’t have it in me to do a video.
And guess what I did? I didn’t do a video because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself.
In the meantime, once my team gave me their lists, I answered every single question, something less to be done.
And I kept meeting with them regularly to know what their needs were.
When it came to my doctor’s appointments, I was always asking things like what do we need to do? What’s this? What’s that? and getting all of my things done there.
Then I realized that instead of scrolling at night, I was going to spend time watching videos on YouTube of women telling what to keep in mind for the same surgery, so I made a list of all the things they said.
After that, it was time to go to Amazon.
I started going down the list and ordering the things these women recommended to have better preparation before and after the surgery.
Then I asked my doctor a lot of questions I had prepared and audio-recorded their answers and make sure everything was answered
Then from there, I kept going to find somebody to clean the house.
And I went on Groupon and found a special so I hired a cleaner.
Then somebody asked me how can I help you right now and I said you can come over and help me with this and that.
So instead of doing it all by myself, I started garnering support.
I started saying, hey, I’m going to need support.
And I created a WhatsApp chat and I’ll put everybody in WhatsApp because when I have surgery, I’m going to be out of it and nobody’s going to have my phone and I need to reach out for help.
And I kept putting people into the WhatsApp chat to where right now we’ve got like 36 people in this chat that were able to ask how they can help.
3. The whole point I’m telling you about all this is because there’s so much going on in your life and the only way you’re going to be able to handle stressful times is by having some level of organization and having a space to be able to process your emotions.
I recommend journaling, prayer, and crying because when we are not processing our emotions and doing things one day at a time, we get overwhelmed.
We need to allow ourselves to give and get what we need during a stressful time.
When anyone asks, how can I help? I say, Oh my God, I would love your help.
In my case I asked, can I add you to the WhatsApp chat?
And I was able to say, I’m going to need help at least the first three weeks very heavily and I need some support here and there with this and that.
4. I had to be in tune with myself and what was going on, what I was feeling, acknowledging that I couldn’t do everything by myself and that I needed physical help with people.
And that’s how I was able to be prepared for surgery while reaching out for help.
You know, God wants to be there for you and he will.
He will comfort you and bring you tools but you also have to allow yourself to go into the practical things and find ways to get what you need to get done strategically.
5. Ask people for help and say no to the things that you can no longer do.
It’s like I was supposed to have a meeting with my mentor and I said, hey, I’m stressed, I’m anxious and I got a lot of appointments coming up. Can we meet after my surgery?
And he said: Absolutely!
Somebody else said: Can we meet for this brand?
And I replied: Hey, I don’t have it right now but if we can meet the third week of December, I can do that.
So I’m just telling everybody, here’s what’s happening in my life right now and I could use this kind of support.
That is me being extremely self-aware of who I am, what’s going on, how I’m feeling, and then communicating that to people.
As a result, people are comprehensive and they’re also offering help.
And if they ask, how can I help? Here is how you can help long-distance people.
Help can be on its way by sending food through DoorDash, or things through Instacart, gift cards, writing notes, and sending them in the mail, even sending flowers.
6. So if you’re facing a stressful, busy time, you’ve got to dump all this stuff out, talk to God, and you’ve got to plan and get organized.
You’ve got to prioritize things.
Check your lists: having the house clean, down here, washing clothes and the blankets, here, surgery appointments, up here, getting a team organized, here, learning about the surgery here, learning about recovery, here.
You need to prioritize the order to get things done.
I hope you found this article valuable and If you read this far, say a prayer for me, I would appreciate it so much.
If you want to support me please send me a DM on my Instagram and I’ll let you know how you can help.
Thank you so much for reading.