Stressed Spelled Backward is Desserts
Super special, five layer birthday cheesecake served! I should back up.
I spent a delightfully relaxing 4th of July weekend with my family and enjoying the time with one of my sisters before she moved to Nebraska after the holiday. However, because I wasn’t really home much, I also did not prep things for the work week like I typically do. Food wasn’t prepared, I needed to make yet another mask[1] for work, my husband’s birthday was coming up and I still needed to find a gift and figure out a special dessert. Additionally, the daily household responsibilities kept piling onto the to-do list.
I work long shifts, so I typically don’t schedule anything or try to do much once I get home from work. I’m simply too tired most nights. This past week, however, I knew I didn’t have that option. Monday night found me at Wal-Mart, hungry and tired. Ever shopped with fuzz brain and a growling stomach? Difficult at best. Thankfully, half my plan was to bake, which is better than a half-baked plan. I had decided to make a cheesecake for the birthday celebration and was able to get all of the ingredients. The birthday gift, however, eluded me.
A grill caught my eye, but I wanted to check one other store before making a final decision. So Tuesday night after work, I found myself at Lowe’s. Plenty of grills there, but not one within the style or price range that I was looking for. Back to Wal-Mart it was, where I picked up the grill I had seen the night before, along with several accessories. An hour and a half later, I was finally home.
I needed to publish a blog post, make the cheesecake, prep a crock-pot dinner for the next day, make my breakfast shakes, and figure out dinner for the night. It was already after eight o’clock PM and I felt my stress level rising as I thought about how long my to-do list was for the night. But I had to start somewhere, so I got the blog post published. I then went to make the cheesecake.
Now, I make a fairly incredible cheesecake to begin with, but my husband, Anthony, said he wanted a ten layer cheesecake. No way was I going to attempt that just yet, but I wanted to make it a special cheesecake nevertheless. I used caramel coconut crème flavored Oreos for the crust, sprinkled bits of salted caramel filled dark chocolate squares over the crust, made the cream cheese filling with vanilla beans, and swirled in melted espresso flavored chocolate chips in the batter. If you included the whip cream I ended up serving on top of the cheesecake, then technically, it turned out to be at least five “layers.”
As I watched the time get increasingly later that night, I knew I had some decisions to make. If I kept plowing through the to-do list, I might get everything done at some late hour, but I would be even more exhausted and stressed. Or, I could prioritize and do only the tasks that absolutely had to be finished that night and do everything else either the next day or later in the week. Thankfully, I chose the latter, and almost immediately, I could feel some of the stress start to slip away. I had Anthony pick up some Chinese take-out for dinner while I finished making the cheesecake. We watched a show episode on the TV while we ate dinner, and then I prepped my breakfast shakes and cleaned up the mess from baking. Anthony had already done all the other dishes earlier that day for me, so it didn’t take too long to tidy up the kitchen again before going to bed. I also decided that I would swing home on my lunch break the next day to put the beef pot roast and veggies in the crock-pot. I knew I would be able to get it accomplished more quickly the next day, when I wouldn’t be quite as exhausted. By making these decisions, it helped me to feel less stressed and gave me a little more time to relax and enjoy the moment instead of being overwhelmed about everything I needed to do.
I am continuing to learn that if I notice my stress level rising and I feel like I have a list of a million things I need to do, there are a few steps I can take to help reduce that stress level:
- Take a deep breath … or a few. Oxygen helps your brain to think better and your body to become more relaxed and calm.
- Do a brain-dump. This allows you to visually see the list of things that are swirling through your thoughts, which take up mental energy and space. Seeing your list visualized in writing brings clarity to the situation.
- Prioritize. I can’t emphasize this one enough. By prioritizing the items on your to-do list, you create momentum instead of getting stuck trying to accomplish everything at once.
- Do one thing at a time. This allows you the ability to completely focus on what you’re doing, thus allowing you to complete that task more quickly so that you can move on to the next thing. Multitasking is a myth. Don’t add more stress by trying to do everything at the same time; it’s self-sabotage.
- Remember to enjoy the moment and be grateful for the little things. If we become so stressed about everything we want to get accomplished or checked off of our to-do list, we miss out on the opportunities and moments that are right in front of us. By focusing on what we’re grateful for, it shifts our perspective back to a positive one, instead of being focused on the negative.
Oh, and the cheesecake was absolutely amazing, by the way.
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[1] You can read more about my thoughts regarding that in my blog post, The Masks We Hide Behind.