Save the Drama - Feeling Overwhelmed and Dealing with Stress

Tomorrow is Monday.  At my veterinary hospital that means drama.

Because Monday is one of the busiest days of our week, it is the perfect day to experience drama, which leads to feeling overwhelmed and ultimately stressed.  I have to admit that I love a little drama, in fact I am sometimes the one that creates it, but I hate to see my veterinary team frustrated and stressed over something that is beyond our control.  Monday.

Last Monday we had three doctors on the schedule, plus me, working there doing my paperwork.  I don’t see clients on Monday as a general rule.  The schedule was packed as usual and several people called with sick birds.  Alas, I am the only bird vet.  When the receptionist politely asks me to see Mr. or Mrs. So and So with their birds, the first thing I do is loudly complain and create stress around the situation. “How will I ever get my paperwork done?” I declare, knowing that I will ultimately say “yes” and see the birds.  Why create the drama? 

I think that the drama feels necessary to us.  It feels warranted.  Our brain likes everything to feel structured, orderly and quiet.  Our brain does not like to be challenged or forced to make quick decisions.  That is why when we feel the need to make many decisions very quickly, our brain causes us to feel overwhelmed so we have a reason to just run and hide.   It is the way we are wired deep in our primitive thinking. 

Stress and feeling overwhelmed are simply emotions.  They have no purpose.  They pretend to be caused by the events going on around us, but are never caused by the events. They are in our mind and under our control.  The stress and frustration we feel is our brain avoiding decision making.  We don’t want to make a choice, so we create drama to avoid making that choice.   When too many choices are presented we have an emotional meltdown to avoid facing them.

How can we keep the drama away and prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed?  Start with managing your thoughts about the busyness of the day.  Why shouldn’t we be busy?  It is Monday.  Mondays are always swamped, because we have been closed for the weekend and people have been watching their sick pets just waiting for us to open.  Normal. Natural. Right?  Getting upset, complaining and stressing-out serves no purpose. 

This is something that we can control.  If our brain is avoiding making decisions we need to teach our brain to make quick decisions and give our brain limited options.  When a client with a sick bird wants to come in on my day of paperwork, I really only have 2 choices.  Say “yes”, or say “no”.  No complaining, no drama.  I know that I will always say "yes", so why not just go there first to avoid the stress?  Limit your brain’s options, make quick decisions and train your brain to avoid the drama.  This will ultimately save you time and energy and keep you from feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

The next time you say, “I feel so stressed” or “ I feel overwhelmed”, think about why you are creating these feelings.  Realize it is a choice that you are making to avoid managing your decisions. 

Dr. Julie Cappel

Please share a story about how you overcame your drama in the comment section below.