What:
On my mission, the church released a booklet to help missionaries keep there overall health in line, specifically because there seemed to be a lot more mental and emotional health issues. In the booklet was various little tasks to help deal with stress and anxiety that comes with missionary work. While that book was somewhat applicable to deal with on the mission, I feel it could be a more useful tool in my life now. I don't think I've ever been juggling as many balls as I am at the current moment. And quite frankly, I'm not doing very good at it. Particularly this week has been one of those weeks that things seem to climax and I can barely keep my feet on me. I think I've always felt like being stressed out was some sort of weakness that wasn't worth voicing or dealing with. But sweeping it under the rug is not helping me this time so I've had to turn to other resources. I think speaking with people is a really important step because its always easier to deal with things together than on your own. The stress tool that has helped me this time is actually making a list of everything that is stressing me out, labeling who is responsible for those things, and what my concern is about that thing. And its helping me quite a lot actually.
So What:
Why would this be important? Well, life is most likely to just get busier from here on out so its really important to learn how you deal with stress and what solutions you have for it. I never have tried this list thing before but its helped me clear my mind. I now can see some of the things I'm stressing about are not in my control. I also can see that I want control over more things than I have the capability to handle. And I can see what things I just being ridiculous about and need to let go of. I'm sure this will help alleviate a lot of the pressure i've been feeling.
Now What:
Well I guess I'm going to press on and keep making these lists whenever I feel the need. And I'm going to learn how to let go of things and only worry about what is in my control. I'm learning to recognize that stress is not a weakness, but something we all experience and its ok if we break down sometimes. But use what tools you have to get you back on track, including people around you or sorting your thoughts out on paper.
I'd love to hear any ideas anyone has on how they deal with stress.
Brooke, I love how you mentioned that stress is not a weakness, that everyone has it and that in order to get through whatever is stressing us out, we have to face it head on. I would get stressed all the time in high school trying to balance social life, athletics and academics (if only I knew how easy I had it then). One thing my mom would say to me almost everyday was to, "take one thing at a time." This always frustrated me, but she was right. We spend so much time stressing about everything that we have to do, that we waste a lot of time. If we just start with the first in priority and work down the list, stress begins to be relieved quickly. We just have to keep taking one thing at a time in life, working through our list and only worry about what we can control. This will help us live all around healthier lives. Thanks again for the post!
ReplyDeleteTrent, I would have to agree that taking one thing at a time is helpful to managing our stress and controlling our life.
DeleteI try to stay in control of my stress by recognizing how it can actually help me achieve my goals; the right amount of stress really does push us to work harder at accomplishing what we want to.