By The last couple of months have been stressful in my life outside of blogging. I started to feel the impact of the stress towards the end of last week. Sleep became difficult. Spending a lot of staring at the ceiling thinking about what I didn’t do that day and/or what I need to do the next day became typical last week. In other words, my type A personality and my perfectionist tendencies showed up when they hadn’t in a while.
The other sign of stress that showed up for me was the idea I let everybody I love down. This idea was completely in my head. In case I haven’t mentioned before, I overthink a lot and live in my head quite a bit. The question then became how do I get my stress and overactive imagination back to manageable levels? I thought I would share what I did with all of you because stress and an overactive imagination are not just something I deal with. Life is stressful for everybody now and then. My tips are in no order below:
- Remember that nobody is perfect, so you don’t need to try to be. Embrace your imperfections. They are where your story lies. Being honest about your imperfections can help others. For my fellow Christians: it’s helpful to remember that perfection already came, so we don’t have to try, and we can be ourselves.
- Make self care a priority. This can be hard to do, but is really worth it. I didn’t work much this weekend because I realized my body needed the extra sleep and rest. I feel better today.
- Talk to a person or people who know you really well and love you. They’ll be to see you’re doing better than you think and reassure you of that. Let them remind you how loved you are. Trust me, this will bring stress down.
- Do things that relax you. For me: this includes watching cooking shows
- I recommend not watching the news when trying to get stress under control. Many times, watching the news makes me more stressed.
- Do your best everyday and let that be enough. It’s hard to do, but worth it.
I hope these tips help all of you manage stress better the next time life becomes stressful.
PS: I promise my first e-mail is coming soon. Hopefully, this Friday. If you would like to sign up you can do so here: it’s free.
