“I’m so stressed!” If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I would never work another day in my life. Seriously speaking, stress is inescapable. How you react to it, though, is everything. Make up your mind that you will choose your responses.
I lost my father a month before my final exams. These were final exams that would determine whether I graduated or not. It was the most stressful time, to say the least.
When I moved to England, after passing my exams, it took me seven months to get a job, and I was trying to plan my wedding. Stressful…
There is no one who has not been through stress, in various forms. Sometimes what constitutes stress to one person is not to another. Sometimes many little things combine to become one big overwhelming mess.
Manage stress with these tips:
1. Focus on the positive.
When my father died, I was surrounded by so much love from my friends. My boyfriend was at my beck and call encouraging me all the time. Sometimes after I spent most of my waking moments crying, my friend Francisca would come and read to me in the evenings.
My class representatives had a class test canceled so that they could support me by attending my father’s funeral. I was grateful for all that. Yes, my father had died, but I had good friends.
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2. Take mental breaks.
Every day, make it a point to take 15 to 30 minutes of quiet time to yourself to just do nothing. Do not plan, plot, or pray. Just. Be. Quiet.
So, full disclosure here, I am still working on this, but I do find that when I feel the most overwhelmed, and I pull back and take a quiet moment, I get clarity and feel better.
Every few weeks or so, take a vacation. If you cannot take a vacation, do something enjoyable to create nice memories and break the