Six signs you need to slow down

If your answer to "How are you?" is a run down of your perpetual busyness rather than "I am excellent, thank you" it's time to look at getting off the treadmill for a bit. Photo / Thinkstock

If you are thinking "I don't have time to read this article, I'm too busy" then reading this article is exactly the thing you need to do. Life is busy - I get it - but when is it too busy?

Here are six signs you might need to redress the balance:

1 You say "I don't have time" multiple times a day. The more we reinforce that message to ourselves the less time we magically seem to have. "I don't have time" is one of the most stress-inducing sentences in the English language. I would personally like to ban us all from saying it - it's a stressful lie (yes, lie!). It's far more accurate, and much more calming, to tell ourselves (and others) the truth: "I'm choosing to prioritise this thing/task/person right now, and I'm good with that". Life is full of choices, let's stop fighting time and own the fact we make choices about what we put in it.

2 You use coffee to get through. That's using coffee, like a drug, as opposed to having a coffee because it tastes nice. Be honest. If you are habitually using coffee to create energy boosts, you need to have a think about when you can take a break and recharge your mind and body properly.

3 Your phone is surgically attached to your body. Yeah that. If you are checking your phone a zillion times a day you may be becoming addicted to the dopamine response it creates. It's a sign that you need to slow down and unplug - just for a bit. Try setting some digital boundaries and have at least an hour before bed to wind down with no screen to let your natural melatonin production recalibrate. Want to really scare yourself? Download an app that tracks how many times you check your phone and collates, to the minute, how many hours you spend a week on Facebook, email, etc. It's pretty illuminating!

4 You wake up feeling tired. If you are finding sleep is not as restorative as it once was and you are actually waking up feeling tired, you could be suffering from the early stages of adrenal fatigue. This can become serious, but is very easy to remedy if you catch it early and listen to your body. Talk to your GP, or take the quick quiz on my website to see if this is an issue for you.

5 You wear "I'm sooooooo busy" like a badge of honour. If your answer to "How are you?" is a run down of your perpetual busyness rather than "I am excellent, thank you" it's time to look at getting off the treadmill for a bit.

6 You can't think of the last time you had fun. Life is supposed to be fun, yo! It's not meant to be one long never ending To Do list. A sure sign of overwhelm and needing to desperately slow down is when you can't remember when you last did something for fun, or had a heap of spontanteous fun. If you can't recall the last time you laughed until you cried, your balance is seriously out of whack.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. We are not designed to live at "flat-out" all day, every day. We can do it temporarily, but then it's important to regroup and recharge for the next campaign. If you have answered "yes" to two or more of the above, take a moment to diarise some well-deserved downtime for yourself and plan some restorative relaxation, connection and fun time.