It’s all new right now and that has it’s challenges

It’s a New Year in many ways (Rosh Hashanah) a new season – Autumn and it’s a new term heraldling change and pressures for many parents, pupils and students.

Summer is over, the school holidays have finished fading to distant memory as we enter meteorological autumn signalling change.

All Change

For many Autumn is a welcome season with magical colours reflecting back to us in surrounding nature, harvesting of produce carefully nurtured over the months and spectacular sunsets.

It can be a tough time rebalancing and spinning many more plates. Getting used to new routines such as new schools, new terms, new timetables, new commuting routes, new routines for carers, more colleagues back to the office to a back drop of almost constant ‘noise’ from the media impacting upon our mood, emotions and energy. All of this adds considerable weight to the hidden, mental load.

What is the mental load?

In short, the doing of everything. The mental load is hidden, defined as “… the intersection of the two (cognitive and emotional labour): preparing, organising and anticipating everything, emotional and practical, that needs to get done to make life flow.” (Melissa Hogenboom, The hidden load: How ‘thinking of everything’ holds mums back, BBC. 18th May 2021). The sheer weight and volume of organising and social organisation required at home, work and in life happens away from the visible.

Anything from planning what to wear for school, birthdays (family and work), pick ups, collections from various places including pharmacies for carers, what to eat on what day, what to buy on the weekly shop, household finances, fixing energy bills, house insurance, car insurance, booking a plumber or other service, cleaning through to ensuring the milk and bins get put out on the right day! This is what goes on in the background to make it all work.

Left unattended and without constraint can lead to almost constant pressure on our self care ‘dashboard’ pushing the metrics into overwhelm causing many common challenges for clients. Concerns such as anxiety, worry, stress, self doubt, self esteem, low energy, confidence and self worth which can lead to inner conflict and losing sense of self (who am I?).

What can we do?

The mental load is constant, it never ends. Share and make it visible with those you trust and who care about you, just the act of sharing and being heard, will make a difference.

Check out our blogs on handling overwhelm and stress with tips to regain balance.

When faced with this constant pressure, it is important to find to take some time for self. Choose to do something just for yourself which requires your complete attention. For example a recent client spent time, the first time in months playing a piano and found the all encompassing experience cleared their head, other clients have taken some time for interests such as drawing, pottery, yoga or simply taking a walk to create space to breathe and just be.

Regaining a sense of control can be just what is needed when seeking rebalance. In NLP we can use a variety of approaches working with emotions as well as hypnotherapy to improve sleep, relaxation and reduce stress.