Risa Williams is a motivational speaker, author, and therapist sharing her expertise in time management and productivity. Author of several books including her latest book Get Stuff Done Without the Stress. You can also learn from Rise on her The Motivation Mindset Podcast!
We live in a massively stressful time- do you see that getting any better?
So many people are really feeling like stress is constant right now. So what can we do? I find the best way to deal with things when they feel too big and overwhelming, is to start small – notice the little things around us that are calm, the tiny moments of peace, the little things we’re doing each day to move ourselves forward. Break big things you need to do into even easier steps. Take one step at a time. Try to focus your attention on: “What’s the next tiny easy step I can take right now?” And then, take many breaks when you need them. Rest a lot. Reset yourself by doing things that actively bring your stress down, things that you enjoy or give you peace, make these things just as important as work in your schedule. There is so much stress around us right now, self-care has to be nonnegotiable. This is how we can ground ourselves during very stressful times.
Countless people have been helped by your work handling stress and burnout- how did you figure out what really helps so well?
That’s wonderful to hear, thank you for saying that. I hope readers will find practical tools they can use right now to start to connect with calmer feelings more. I try to include a lot of “easy to grasp onto” concepts that, even if you don’t try to implement right away, will at least start to shift your perspective just by thinking about them for a minute or two. With all the books I write, I’m trying to promote adopting a “self-kindness mindset” where we can start to talk to ourselves in kinder ways about ourselves and the things we do everyday. I think most of us trend the opposite way, which is, to mentally beat ourselves up a lot about everything we’re doing and all the things we “need” to do all the time. And this is really only adding to our own stress! So, I think it’s important to be kinder towards ourselves on an everyday basis and to change this trend for the sake of our own wellbeing and balance.
Why is self-kindness an important topic to you right now?
I think it’s where everything starts. When we can learn to talk to ourselves in kinder, gentler ways, and when we can learn to treat our bodies with much more regular kindness, then we can start to really befriend and care for ourselves. We can learn to love ourselves, and treat ourselves in healthier and happier ways. And then, this starts to have a ripple effect outwards. We start to treat others with more genuine kindness, we start to see the world through a kinder lens. Everything we do internally can change our external experience of the world. So, for me, it starts with you being kinder to you. Then, with consistency, over time, self-kindness starts to shift things in big ways in your outside world, too. You can start by being kinder to yourself in tiny ways. It doesn’t have to start with a big shift. Just try to tell yourself a kind thing here and there to begin with, or catch yourself mid-sentence when you start to beat yourself up a little more. Even just making a tiny change can start to have a really big effect on your overall mood and stress levels each day.
You can check out Jenny’s latest book Get Stuff Done Without the Stress here!