April photo dump. And things of that nature. ✨✨
Are we twinning or nah? 😂😂😂 Are we twinning or nah? 😂😂😂
4/10 should be declared a national holiday because 4/10 should be declared a national holiday because on this day a king was born! Happy birthday, son. Love you more than words can say! 🎉🎉🎉
May we continue to have crazy/fun adventures toget May we continue to have crazy/fun adventures together. You deserve an overflow of serendipity, and all the joy I can provide. Still celebrating—Happy Birthday, Mommy! 🎉🎉🎉
Worked hard all week so we deserved a little treat Worked hard all week so we deserved a little treat. ✌🏾
My novel ‘A Clermont Lane Wedding’ is certainl My novel ‘A Clermont Lane Wedding’ is certainly not biographical, but there are traces of my life all up and down this book (hint hint). It’s a perfect Spring Break read!

It’s got romance, intrigue, a little mystery, and a family legacy on the line. On sale on Amazon, eBooks and paperback, link in bio.
The miracle of being a WOMAN. A life giver. A soul The miracle of being a WOMAN. A life giver. A soul nurturer. A blessing. ✨
My mum—that’s the caption! And it’s only fit My mum—that’s the caption! And it’s only fitting that on the first day of Women’s History Month, I’m able to share it with her! R-E-S-P-E-C-T! 💪🏾
I am grateful for the moments of joy that lighten I am grateful for the moments of joy that lighten my heart today. 💫
  • Blog
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Legal
  • Contact
  • Media Kit
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Media Kit

The Cubicle Chick

Career | Midlife | Style

  • Home
  • Career
  • Style
  • Family
  • Travel
  • Culture

Career, Health & Beauty, On A Personal Note, Sponsored, Working Moms · May 10, 2018

Working Mom Tips: How to Deal with Stress From an Expert


Dr. Robin Henderson, PsyD of the Well Being Trust is answering my questions about how to deal with stress while identifying triggers.

This post is sponsored by Well Being Trust. 

If you are a busy working mom, then chances are you’ve had your share of stress. Our families depend on us to be supermoms, leap tall buildings in a single bound, solve every problem, and do so in a consistent fashion. But sometimes, it can be too much. The weight of it all can be overwhelming and before we know it, we are overcome with stress.

I’ve been there myself. When both my son and daughter were younger and I was working a full-time job in Corporate America, I was burning both ends. On top of working a 40+ week, being the taxi and shuffling the kids around, being a wife, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of home, I was also attending college to get my degree. One night on my way home from school, I pulled over and balled my eyes out. I forgot a major deadline at work, missed my son’s band concert, and my daughter had a fever. I felt like a failure.

Hindsight now tells me that I was overdoing the dramatics a bit, but it was a stressful time and I had a lot  on my plate. At that time, I didn’t know how to deal with stress and I wasn’t even aware what my triggers were. I also didn’t know how to deal with stress.

Ten years later, I have it pretty much figured out. I don’t sweat the small stuff, and I don’t try to do it all. I manage instead of balance and I avoid stress and protect my peace at all costs.

I recently got the opportunity to interview Dr. Robin Henderson, PsyD on the topic of stress and triggers. She’s a Clinical Liaison at Providence St. Joseph’s Health to the Well Being Trust, whose mission is to improve the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation. With the major readership of my blog comprised of working moms, I wanted her to share her expert tips on how to deal with stress.

Here’s what she had to say about stress, self-care, and more.

On the definition of stress.

Stress is a natural human response to stimulus, real or imagined. There are a lot of definitions out there on the internet, and they all struggle with one of the great realities of stress–some stress is good, some stress is bad—and the reality is, it’s different for every person in every situation. Good stress, also known as “eustress”, is the positive kind of stress that can energize us to complete a task, climb that mountain, run an extra mile, get out on stage and perform, or even just get through a tough situation with more resilience. Bad stress, also known as “distress”, is the stuff that can make us angry, sad, feel helpless, overwhelmed and, in many cases, make us sick. We need eustress in our lives. The problem is, each of us has to become aware of when eustress becomes distress, and most of us aren’t really great at that!

On if working moms adequately handle stress.

I think working moms are at risk for not understanding their line between eustress and distress due to the many competing priorities they have. We all feel that pressure to be a “good mom”, a “good partner” and a “good employee.” In pursuit of all those goods, we often forget to be a “good me” too—and that’s distressing! As a mom, it’s so easy to put your own needs aside and attend to all the other priorities, but what we don’t realize is how much more effective we’d be at all of them if we weren’t stressed out. That balance gets lost in the mix, and many moms start to go down the slippery slope of distress until they hit the proverbial “wall”. My hope is that the wall each of us hits is soft, and doesn’t do permanent damage. It’s one thing to wake up and realize you just don’t have the energy to do anything today because you’ve stressed yourself into a cold. It’s another to wake up and realize you’ve stressed yourself into something more chronic like diabetes or hypertension.

Dr. Robin Henderson, PsyD of the Well Being Trust is answering my questions about how to deal with stress while identifying triggers.

On what some of the triggers of stress are.

I think we’re all pretty good at defining distress after it occurs. We’re often our own “Captain Obvious” when we get out of a stressful situation like a big life event, or maybe a situation that we realize afterwards wasn’t really our cup of tea. What I think we’re bad at is defining “toxic stress.” Toxic stress is most often defined as prolonged stress without adequate emotional support—such as the effects of abuse, trauma, poverty, chronic illness, and family dysfunction. When we’re in those environments where stress becomes the constant, we are constantly firing those internal mechanisms, and that has long term effects on our well-being. This is especially true for children—the long term effects of toxic stress are life-changing, and result in much higher incidents of illness, poverty, and criminal behavior later in life. It also leads to substance use disorders, chronic pain, and many other conditions that start as dysfunctional coping mechanisms for toxic stress, then spiral out of control.

On the importance of self-care to help downplay stress.

I’m a big fan of “me time.” It doesn’t have to be a long time, but making time each day just for me is important. Whether it’s 15 minutes in the morning with coffee, a quiet bath, or even a minute of meditative breathing before you start your commute home can make a difference. It’s intentionality that’s important. Finding time for you, your partner, and your children is also important. We have “family game night’ each week, and we play a variety of board games. Sometimes other friends come over but it’s really just our time to connect, laugh and do something completely silly. My children are now 15 and 17, and last night, we had a rousing game of “Exploding Kittens”, one of the silliest card games I’ve ever played! Just the fun of doing something completely silly together reduced everyone’s stress with one of my favorite stress reducers: Laughter. They say “laughter is the best medicine.” Well, it really is. Find the humor in your work life, family life, relationships and even your commute, and your life will be less stressful every day.

On how working moms can manage stress.

Organization is a big help. I take time each weekend to plan what’s for dinner during the week, ensure the shopping is done, and post the menu in the kitchen. That eliminates the constant “what’s for dinner” struggles, and sets me up for success so I don’t have to think about it when I get home. We also have a family calendar with upcoming events posted where everyone can see it. This also reduces surprises during the week. We all have family chores so we share the responsibility. Whether it’s feeding the cat, changing the litterbox, doing the dishes, or even who takes out the garbage, don’t take it all on yourself. And, recognize that your family is imperfect—and when they fail to do something, it’s not your job to do it for them. It’s your opportunity to teach them responsibility and let them do it. I have two kids, and years ago, my husband created the perfect system that eliminated power struggles over who gets to be “first”—who gets the front seat, the first plate of dinner, first whatever—and who feeds the cats that day. He created “even” and “odd” days—and let the children choose whether they were “even” or “odd”. This one time decision has eliminated more power struggles in my home for more than a decade! It’s little things that reduce all the little power struggles that can make a big difference for a working mom.

Wow—Dr. Robin really hit the nail on the head for me, and I am sure that her insight can help all of us live better, more “eustress” lives!

The theme I get most from this conversation is to not be too hard on yourself, plan and organize so that you are less stressed, and take time out regularly alone and with your family to create an atmosphere of love, strength, and laughter.

I am all for that!

Click HERE to learn more about Well Being Trust. Make sure to take their #BeWellChallenge.

Take the Be Well Challenge for a healthier, fuller life.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash


Related Posts

  • Working Moms Share How They Deal with Holiday Stress

    Around this time of year, holiday stress is real. Read how working moms are combating…

  • How To Deal With Stress In The Workplace

    Written By: Tanijoy, TheCubicleChick.com Contributor There is a time in everyone's life where you will…

  • 5 Goals That Every Work-at-Home Mom Should Have for 2013

    Being a work-at-home mom is a lot of work. Hopefully you are making the type…

In: Career, Health & Beauty, On A Personal Note, Sponsored, Working Moms · Tagged: Dr. Robin Henderson, sponsored, stress, working moms

join the cube

You’ll Also Love

Black women are at an increased risk for HIV, so it is time that we have a conversation about PrEP, a pill taken once a day that can help block HIV.Let’s Have an Open and Honest Conversation About PrEP
Productivity matters in the workplace. When you have deadlines to meet and projects to finish, who has time to deal with paper jams?Just Say No To Paper Jams and Yes to Productivity
Spring is full of all sorts of wonderful possibilities. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Take in these self-care ideas for April.Six Working Mom Self-Care Ideas for April

Comments

  1. Natalia says

    April 24, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    I had no idea there was such a thing as good stress! Who knew?

    Reply
  2. Jane @ Modern Housewives says

    May 30, 2018 at 4:32 am

    I agree, being a working mum is a very stressful endeavour. You have no idea how many nights I spent locked in the bathroom, crying and wanting to give up. Multitasking is not meant for everybody, and I have nothing but respect for all the women that manage to do it. I personally had a talk with my husband and told him I can’t live like that. Now we have a very organised system, where both of us pitch in for the household tasks and the caring for our daughter. Turns out speaking out was the best decision I ever made.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Next Post >

Is It Time For You to Take a Stress Leave From Your Job?

Advertisement


Hi there! I'm Danyelle Little, a St. Louis blogger, mom & and empty-nester. This site is for those of you who like to get the best out of both worlds-personally and professionally. Learn more about me HERE!

Buy My New Holiday Novel

join the cube

Recent Posts

  • Planning a Vacation to Orlando: The Best Places to Shop and Explore
  • Seattle Round Trip: Elliott Bay, Hawaii, Alaska and More
  • Letter To My Daughter As She Turns 21: The World Is Yours
  • Ten Sexy Date Night Ideas for Couples Over 40
  • Six Reasons to Watch Beyond the Gates, New Black Soap

The Cube on Facebook

Checkout my NEW podcast

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Google Podcasts

Affiliate

Perdue Farms Special Offer

trending now

Load More Posts

instagram

Follow @thecubiclechick

April photo dump. And things of that nature. ✨✨
Are we twinning or nah? 😂😂😂 Are we twinning or nah? 😂😂😂
4/10 should be declared a national holiday because 4/10 should be declared a national holiday because on this day a king was born! Happy birthday, son. Love you more than words can say! 🎉🎉🎉
May we continue to have crazy/fun adventures toget May we continue to have crazy/fun adventures together. You deserve an overflow of serendipity, and all the joy I can provide. Still celebrating—Happy Birthday, Mommy! 🎉🎉🎉
Worked hard all week so we deserved a little treat Worked hard all week so we deserved a little treat. ✌🏾
My novel ‘A Clermont Lane Wedding’ is certainl My novel ‘A Clermont Lane Wedding’ is certainly not biographical, but there are traces of my life all up and down this book (hint hint). It’s a perfect Spring Break read!

It’s got romance, intrigue, a little mystery, and a family legacy on the line. On sale on Amazon, eBooks and paperback, link in bio.
The miracle of being a WOMAN. A life giver. A soul The miracle of being a WOMAN. A life giver. A soul nurturer. A blessing. ✨
My mum—that’s the caption! And it’s only fit My mum—that’s the caption! And it’s only fitting that on the first day of Women’s History Month, I’m able to share it with her! R-E-S-P-E-C-T! 💪🏾
I am grateful for the moments of joy that lighten I am grateful for the moments of joy that lighten my heart today. 💫
21. Circa 2004. 🎂 #birthdaybehavior 21. Circa 2004. 🎂 #birthdaybehavior
Follow on Instagram

Work With Me

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Media Kit

join the cube

Site Info

  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal
  • Site Disclosure

Copyright © 2025 The Cubicle Chick · Theme by 17th Avenue