Don’t Let Your Houseguests Kill You
Living by the beach, we are all going to have the occasional house guest. It comes with the territory. The whole reason we live here is because it is a place people want to visit. We live year-round where people want to vacation, and that is just amazing.
We recently finished up with having six extra people in my house for two trash cycles. That’s a long time when my wife gauges the length of stay by how many times we put the trash out for pickup while our guests are here. Two trash cycles is a lengthy stay.
As business owners, what some of our guests don’t understand is that our life does not stop when they arrive. We continue to work, some of us 12 hours a day. My wife continues running her skin-care business, Damn Good Face Wash, from our home. We continue with the kids’ various camps, sports, events, etc. Summer is the busiest of times for us.
I love having friends and family come visit, and there is nothing I would rather do more than party like I’m on vacation. But I’m not. That situation can sometimes present some added stress.
When I speak to my clients about what they have on the agenda for the weekend, some of them have a revolving door of guests. One group out, one group in – with barely enough time in between to wash all the towels and bedsheets, clean whatever mess the last group made and repair whatever the last group broke.
What can this stress do to your health, and what can you do to combat it?
Stress is defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Stress is not always a bad thing. Brief stress can elicit physiological response that helps you achieve optimal performance. It’s consistent prolonged periods of stress that can cause a problem.
If you experience stress over a long time, your body’s hormones put you into a fight-or-flight scenario. Not getting enough sleep before working all day and then going out to eat junk and party late into the night before doing it all again the next day counts as prolonged stress and puts you into the fight-or-flight response. This response allocates energy into the muscular system and suppresses other systems that aren’t as immediately important, like the immune system.
A study out of Ohio State University in 2009 found “both psychological and physical stressors can upregulate the synthesis of IL-6 (an inflammatory response). Negative moods such as depression and anxiety can also upregulate this inflammatory response.”
The power of the mind. I hope there are not any of my guests reading this article thinking they qualify as “adverse or demanding circumstances,” but some of them definitely do. I love them dearly. What can we do to combat this stress so that we can lovingly welcome them again next year? As my wife says, “You have to set yourself up for success.”
You should let your guests know what they are getting into. You are not the cruise director and are not always responsible for coordinating activities. You can stay at my house, but I am not responsible for constantly entertaining you. I will also not be responsible for cleaning up after you. You may be on vacation, but I am not, so clean up after yourself. After your last night, strip the bed.
Make some rules to make life easier for everyone. Then when no one follows the rules, try to silence the negative self-talk: “This may not be what I planned, but I can handle it.”
A study published in Ecancermedicalscience found “singing was associated with reductions in cortisol, beta-endorphin and oxytocin levels and preliminary evidence suggests singing improves mood state and modulates components of the immune system.” So even if you are a terrible singer, give it a whirl and reduce your stress and maybe find some alone time as you clear the room.
Now, if you’ve ever read any of my articles before, you know this is obviously going to get back to diet and exercise as well. The best stress relief is being active and eating a healthy diet. It may be difficult, but keeping your workout schedule and eating right is the best thing to do. You can always make your guests join you at your personal training session or that morning bootcamp.
Having guests honestly doesn’t affect me a great deal because I’m at the gym most of the time anyway. So, I try to help as much as I can when I’m at home so my wife can enjoy our company as much as possible. Probably the best way to reduce stress is just spending that quality time with your family and friends. They may be a pain and also the ones causing all the stress, but socializing with the ones you love may be the best stress relief of all.
As long as they strip their damn beds.
