6 Ways to Alleviate Stress and Stop Premature Aging

“Superwoman” may have been nixed long ago as a role model, but too many women today have simply traded the “I can do anything” credo for the “I have to do everything” curse. What’s worse, few feel a grand sense of accomplishment in doing as much as they do; in fact many women guiltily believe they aren’t doing anything very well at all. This adds to the stress and ends up becoming a major cause of premature aging.

Get almost any group of women together and the complaints will be similar: between the responsibilities and demands of jobs, kids and household, life is frantic. For a lot of people there’s a sense of losing control. Their lives are so tightly scheduled and moving so fast that there’s no time to sit down and think, ‘How could I do things differently?’

An attitude adjustment

Experts say that the solution to the feeling of being pulled in every direction is more a change in attitude than anything else. To conquer premature aging, women need to control their stress levels and:

• re-examine their schedules

• be realistic about what they’re doing

• control what they can and go with the flow when they can’t

• cut out what doesn’t matter

• direct their energies toward what they love to do.

At work

One of the big obstacles in the path of progress is attitude in the workplace. In the workplace, it’s assumed that you are unencumbered by responsibilities of family and community. That assumption simply won’t wash anymore. When work and family are approached as though they’re divided interests, employers and employees are automatically at odds with one another. Labour markets have to pay more attention to families or they won’t have dedicated, energetic employees.

Shared responsibilities

While the workplace has a lot to answer for, women can also be their own worst enemy. For one thing, many say they want help at home but don’t know how to accept it when it’s offered. And letting go of authority in order to achieve a more equitable division of labour is not always easy.

There’s not a lot of evidence that men are becoming new-age sensitive husbands and dads. They often don’t get a lot of support if they do take on more in the home – like the guy who tries to do something around the house and is accused of being inept.

A nicer word for nit-picking

Perfectionism is also a hindrance to living in such frenetic times. “Being a perfectionist is about trying to complete something perfectly. When you’re living a real life, nothing’s ever complete. You do the best you can and you move along.

What matters to you

A little soul-searching is essential in figuring out career and personal goals, and finding balance. Before you can live a balanced, fulfilling life, she says, you have to know what it is that fulfills you. Remember that balance doesn’t necessarily mean dividing the elements in your life into equal parts. If you thrive on work outside the home and hate housework, it makes sense to go heavy on the former and light on the latter – even if it means paying someone to help out.

Practice makes perfect

Heeding the best advice will undoubtedly require a little practice: think positively about all that is being accomplished, and cut yourself some slack about the rest. “If you want to be living a rich life with lots of diversity in it, you have to look at the whole picture,” says Macdonald. “You need to take your pleasures from a sense of developing yourself holistically, of contributing to so many things, because that’s what women do – many real things.”