What do you do when you are under pressure? Eat? Drink? Exercise? Clean? Polish silver? Straighten the spices? Make lists upon lists? Yell? Completely shut down? Bake?

I have realized that the more I am feeling overwhelmed, the more I complete household projects. I guess it becomes a way that I can control something in my life: I may not be able to control the health of loved ones or the financial markets but I can surely put a new coat of paint on the walls of my office. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and control.

Of course there are times when this efficiency creates more stress. Usually it is in the middle of the project when things are at sixes and sevens and then another phone call comes in for a request of time, resources or skills. It is at that point I wonder, “Why in the world did I ever start this project?”

It has been shown that mindless repetitive tasks are a good way to relieve stress- kind of like the release valve on a pressure cooker. Mindless tasks also allows our brains to think about other things- to muse, to daydream and to create.

Many times the “dialogue” that occurs when the daydreaming mind cycles through different parts of the brain accesses information that was dormant or out of reach, notes Eugenio M. Rothe, a psychiatrist at Florida International University.

I find that when I do those mindless rote tasks, I can think of the situation or problem at hand and come up with ways to tackle it. It is been the times when ironing that I have been able to think through and plan the moving and organizing of elderly parents. All these simple tasks allows me to keep the home front “in control” while I attempt to handle everything else. When I am gardening or walking the dogs I generally come up with writing ideas.

In addition to mindless tasks I read some interesting ideas about things to try when feeling overwhelmed:

1) Finish one task that you may have started. Sometimes it only takes 15- 30 minutes to complete a seemingly on-going task because when we are in the middle of it, we decide to quit early. Nothing makes me feel accomplished than to strike off an item on my to-do list that has been there for months or even years!

2) Make a brief list of what you are NOT going to work on. I like this suggestion. It gives me permission to not worry about accomplishing too much at one time. I can stay focused on what I am going to do and know that these other things will get done. Later.

3) Do some part of your task and then take a break. Sometimes when things are overwhelming, it is just hard to have the impetus to start. Just do something. Sometimes I just gather: gather information that will be needed for a decision or gather materials needed to start a project. If I am doing a household project, I may just get all the prep work done or laid out ahead of time and then continue working on it the next day. Many times, just getting the ball rolling gets me started and ready to complete the project.

What about you? How do you handle being under pressure?

When I feel that the pressure of finances, future, job and family responsibility, is sitting in the back of my throat causing me to feel like I am suffocating I do the following (in addition to painting rooms): take deep breaths, talk to myself- giving me little pep talks and mantras (ex. “Thy will be done”; “Consider the lilies of the field…”; “Cast your cares on Him for He cares for you”), try and get a decent night sleep, exercise. These things may not eliminate the pressure but certainly helps reduce it.

For those of you who may remember, here is the quintessential musician from the quintessential city singing about PRESSURE;