I'm Beth Whitworth, race car driving, quilt making, CPA firm owning, wife, mom, and boss. I'm here to help you build a business you love by sharing all of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the excellent sides of working in this industry. It's not always easy, but after many years, I can finally say it's worth it.
Let me guide you on your journey to accounting with confidence.
Hi, welcome to another episode of accounting with confidence. I'm your host, Beth Whitworth. And I am here today to talk to you about. Something that I believe everybody experiences at some point and not everybody will talk about and that is combating anxiety. So I just wanted to take this opportunity and do a short little confidence booster and let you know that you're not alone.
I have had issues with anxiety probably most of my adult life. Whether or not I actually recognized it at the time, maybe not, but I recognize it now, and I work really hard at trying to have some tools that I can use to help me kind of get through those episodes of anxiety or anxiousness or overwhelm.
So this is a good time of the year, we're kind of in the middle, the heart of the holiday season. For those of us in the accounting industry, it is a really crazy time with people trying to work on their tax planning and, you know, considerations on what they need to do before year end. Should I spend money?
Should I not spend money? Am I going to have a gain? Am I going to have a loss? And everything is rush, rush, rush. Everybody wants to have something looked at right away, and it starts to get very overwhelming. Now, last year, one of my big goals for the year was to really work on reducing my stress and my anxiety.
And I really did feel like I accomplished that. And just as I thought, okay, I've got everything under control, right before Thanksgiving this year, I had another episode. When I get overwhelmed, I tend to shut down, or I get angry, or I get emotional. And so all of those things were hitting as we were coming into the Thanksgiving holiday, and I thought, this isn't something that just goes away.
It is still something that you have to work on, and that I need to prioritize making sure that I am doing those protocols that I set up earlier in the year that helped me to kind of get out of the funk and to actually get into a more productive place. So today I'm just going to take a few minutes and share with you some of those tools that I've discovered that really helped me and maybe something will resonate with you And you can think, Oh, if I put that in place, that it might help me get out of it.
So first, one of the early, early, early things that I've, I did and is, it's always been a part of my life anyway, is music. So I am a put on my headphones and dance around the house kind of person. And a few years ago, someone suggested that you create a playlist. That is kind of your turn your mood around playlist.
It's the, and I call mine and it's, it's in my Pandora, get out of that funk. And so it gives me the opportunity to put on music that I know I really love that kind of motivates me, gets me moving, gets me to the point where I'm thinking about something else because I'm singing along and I'm doing those things that.
Just really kind of make you stop thinking about those things that are making you anxious and shifts your focus. So when it's warm out, I will put on that playlist and put on my noise cancelling headphones and I'll go outside because outside is another one of those things that helps me combat the anxiety.
And so I will walk around. I will have my headphones on. I'm sure if there are people in the neighborhood going, who is that crazy woman? You know, singing and dancing down the street, but that is me. And that is tip number one, because most people have a way to listen to music anytime, anyplace, in your car, on your AirPods, while you're working, you know, any, there's an opportunity to get music into your world.
And for me, that is just, that is the key. So that was step number one. And I've been doing that for years, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes you have to come up with some other tools. Now, the other thing that. I'm probably, I'm guessing 50 percent of the world loves to exercise and 50 percent of the world hates to exercise.
I'm in that, I'm kind of in that 50 percent that loves it, but I only like certain things. And so earlier this year, I finally got back to doing what I love in terms of where I'm exercising, but I don't feel like I'm exercising. And that is, putting in place a, an exercise routine for Zumba. So I, I said, I love music.
So I always have music playing, but when I'm also exercising to music and having to think about those dance steps and all those things, and I think I'm the world's best dancer, it is giving me that Exercise, which gives you the endorphins. It helps with all of those things that can reduce your stress levels and improve your health and all those things.
But for me, bringing that back into my world, and it had been about four years since I had been doing Zumba on a regular basis, I immediately recognized that this is something that has to stay a part of my world, something that I love to do, that I don't dread going to the class. And it is something that health wise is important and it's, and it's good for me and what I have found.
So even yesterday. I was having a very, very stressful day. I was feeling very overwhelmed. There were more and more things coming onto my list of things to do. I didn't feel like anything was coming off of the list. And it's getting on to be, you know, 4. 30, 5 o'clock. And I go to Zumba on Monday nights at 5.
30. And I thought, I'm, I'm just going to skip it. And then I did a little bit more self talk and I'm like, you know what, that will start a snowball effect. If I skip this class that I know will help reduce my stress and my anxiety, the stress and the anxiety are just going to grow. And so I changed clothes and I hopped in the car and I went to class.
And I got home and I just felt calmer. And it was one of those things. It combines music and exercise and just it's my thing. So find something find that thing Maybe you're a runner. Maybe you like to swim Maybe maybe a ymca can pretty much give you any of the tools that you need as far as exercise Maybe you like to bike, you know hop on your bike go for a ride and really put it in place and make it a tool You're having a rough time.
You're having a rough day. Go do it. Put it on the schedule and just go do it and don't give up on it because your day got out of control. You know, make that commitment. And that has made a huge difference this year in being able to control having fewer episodes of having anxiety and overwhelm because I am routinely going to this class.
Now, the third thing I will share with you that helps me and not everybody has the flexibility to do this, but if you do take it and that is giving yourself in mental health day. And what I mean by that is so last week, so I've had several weeks in a row where I've had some episodes of anxiety and overwhelm.
That is the last week I said, okay, I worked hard with still feeling having that I'm not making any progress feeling. And so Friday I just said, you know what, I'm going to check my emails in the morning and I'm going to check out and I'm going to kind of let my brain relax. And so I played on my Nintendo switch and I watched some survivor or whatever.
I watched, you know, put something on the TV. And I moved from my desk, I went and was sitting on the couch and really just kind of let my brain relax. And what happens, of course, is sometimes you feel guilty that, Oh, there's so much to get done. I need to go do it. I need to being productive all the time.
And that is kind of that type A personality that so many of us are that you have that mentality that if you're not doing something, you're And making progress on something, you're not succeeding. And that's not true. Everybody needs to take a break. You have to be able to kind of shut things down. And what that does is brings back some of that creativity when you come back.
That problem solving ability. We all suffer from decision fatigue. Sometimes I feel like I've made more decisions by 8 a. m. than I should have to make. All week, but I still have to keep going. And so when I took that day and just said, okay, this is, this is a mental health day. I am going to relax. I am going to try not to stress about things that aren't getting done and just do things I like to do.
And sometimes those days look like me heading over into my quilting studio, otherwise known as Sam's room, which was Sam's room for 22 years. And so I will go in and just spend a few minutes working on a quilting project. And what that does is it redirects my brain and it redirects my energy and when I do that It can just kind of like music it can snap you out of that funk And for me, that's super important and going into the new year I know that all of these protocols, you know my music My exercise and my mental health days are going to be extremely important to being able to navigate the busyness of having my own business, of being in a seasonal type of a situation where we have tax deadlines, we have big things coming up in the next three to four months, and I need to be able to not have that overwhelm just shut me down.
And so hopefully, you know, one, you feel comfortable knowing that you're not alone. If you suffer from anxiety, depression, overwhelm, any of those things, there are other people that are suffering too, and there are ways to work through those. And I, I would thoroughly recommend, you know, if you work with a therapist, do it, you talk to somebody, all of those things, but know that, you know, as you're, you know, having that instantaneous bout of panic and anxiety, here's some things that you can go do.
You can go put on your playlist, you know, get out of that funk. That is the name of my playlist. If anybody looked at my playlist, they'd be going, what is this? I will say it's made up with a bunch of songs that back from my earlier Zumba days, and that when I would hear a song and I would be dancing to it, I'd add that to my playlist because I knew that that changed my energy.
So, okay, all of this to say you're not alone. I hope this little confidence booster helps you to recognize that it's okay to have those feelings, but here are some tools that maybe can help you navigate through those and keep on moving. Okay, that's all I have for now. If you want to leave me a message, click the link that's in the description.
Uh, wherever you're listening to this, there's a link that says, leave me a voice note. And I would love to hear what you do to help you combat any type of overwhelm, anxiety, panic attacks, anything like that. Something that, you know, you could share with me and I can share with others to maybe give some, some suggestions.
Okay. That's all I have for now.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. My hope is that my experiences can help you navigate the realities of owning and operating your business. Please subscribe or follow the podcast on your favorite podcast listening platform so that you never miss an episode. Feel free to leave me a text by using the send us a text message link in the show description and let me know how I'm doing.