It didn’t fully register with me that it was already July. That’s pretty bad. Since I made plans to truly embrace everything that I felt I had enough potential to become, I’ve been extremely busy. So busy in fact, that somehow I managed to stress myself out to the point of getting migraines. So I wondered, how in the world could I get stressed doing everything I love? Simple, I was trying to do EVERYTHING I loved at once. You see, when I wrote out my life list and goals for the year, which were small steps I could take now so that I can one day, accomplish the big life goals; I was supposed to take them one step at a time. However, I became so excited about volunteering, joining a writers group, taking some college refreshers, growing my basket business, working on plans for my own business, getting more involved with church, building better relationships with family and friends, etc. etc. I soon found that in my “free” time, I left out my “me” time. 

 In my head, I needed to work harder, and that meant more studying, more networking, more…I needed to be more.  I confessed to my best friend after losing out on a job I really wanted, “I must not be doing something right, or else I would have gotten that job”.  She did her best friend thing, and then reminded me that I was offered positions, which I walked away from, (and later agonized about, wondering if that was the right decision). Hearing, “you’re really qualified, but we hired someone else” from a job you truly desire is extremely discouraging. So, I worked harder, and didn’t let up anything, bringing myself to the point of working on something (anything I thought could make me more indispensible) until 2 sometimes 3 in the morning, and hoping I would see results one of these days, some day soon.  When my face broke out, (Oh lawd!) and I realized that the last time I worked on my fantasy novel was the first time I worked on my fantasy novel, I knew it was time to take a chill pill; I convinced myself that it was okay for unemployed entrepreneurs to take a sick day.

So I finally pried myself away from doing anything business related long enough to watch some cartoons, read some manga (Japanese comics), purposely sing loud and off key while in the shower, and pig out on a banana split. (Yes, I am a big kid.) It felt great!

I asked some close friends what they did to relieve their stress. They responded, “I work out, run, do something physical to exert my energy.” “Scream.”  “I imagine I’m thousands of miles away.” “Pray and read my bible.” “Normally, I sit on the toilet.”  I realized it’s the simple things in life that make many of us happy. The nice thing is, you don’t have to spend that much money to take a walk in the park, or even rent a canoe at the lake. I mean, last thing we need is to add onto the stress we were trying to relieve.

 What about you? How do you manage stress?

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