With more and more moms pursuing demanding careers, it's more important than ever to talk about and teach moms how to leave work at work.
Let's talk about the 'why' first. You HAVE to protect your mental health. Letting your work stress consume you while you're at home will be detrimental to your mental and physical health. Your mind and body cannot thrive if in constant state of stress. This is for anyone that works an even remotely stressful job, not just moms. If you happen to also be a mom, this is even more relevant because you have children that need your time and attention AND they also need to see healthy habits from you.
Letting your work stress consume you while you're at home will be detrimental to your mental and physical health.
Now let's talk about things you can do to to manage but remember, it will be a skill you have to work on and develop over time.
Whenever possible, do not check emails at home. This isn't always practical, depending on your job. For example, I am a CFO and during the time the auditor works on our Financial Statements, I sometimes have to respond to emails in the evenings or on weekends. However, there are only a few seasons like that during an entire year. Often we cannot do anything about email request while at home anyways so checking your emails is only stressing you out.
Set goals and create daily checklists that you can check off. Part of leaving work stress at work is also managing your stress at work. If there is less stress to begin with, there is less stress to leave behind. For me, being able to actively check things off really helps make me feel accomplished during the day. Also, writing your "To Do" list the night before can help you mentally finish the work day off. It works great for me as I know that I won't forget anything the next day. It allows me to relax.
Use your commute to unload your stress. I wish I remembered who gave me this trick so I could give them credit but I just can't recall. Someone once told me to unload the stress at a certain landmark on my way home and its a little wild but it actually works. When I leave work, I think of all the things that are stressing me out. I take mental inventory of what I need to unload and when I get to the one intersection on my commute home, I toss it out the window.
This one takes the most amount of discipline and work. I learned some strategies from Dr. Caroline Leaf a few years ago and it has been life changing. It doesn't just apply to work, it can be any stressful thing you are going through. You have to actively shut down negative or stressful thoughts. As soon as your brain goes there, you have to take control and change your thoughts. It is possible but it does take work. Once you have mastered this skill, you will be surprised at how much more peaceful your evenings and weekends will be.
I love my demanding and somewhat stressful career. It keeps me challenged and learning and I know myself well enough to know that this is something I need to keep me motivated in life. However, this also means I have to work had at managing the stress so it doesn't steal the joy and attention from my time with my kids.
I hope this was helpful for you. I would love to hear from you. Leave me your thoughts the comment section below.
