I’ve been MIA for a while and there’s a reason. It isn’t a great reason but it’s there none-the-less. There’s a lot of pressure and stress to be perfect on blogs and social media, and quite honestly I just don’t have the time to get dolled up and pretend like I did something besides sit on my couch binge-watching Gossip Girl for the 11th time. Recently, I’ve had some ups and downs in my career path and I’ve found myself working 1.5 jobs on top of running my small business (more on this later). Getting off work at 5:30 pm and then going home and clocking in 4-5 hours at my own business is just exhausting. Not to mention finding time to take photos which only happens on the weekend when I’m playing catch up on shipping out orders and creating new content for my business. It’s been stressful to say the least.
Now, I’m not saying all of this as a “feel sorry for me” stunt. One thing that I said I wanted more of in 2019 is honesty. I’ve found a great support system of wonderful blogging women who have helped me see that it’s okay not to be perfect. So I’m writing this because I want to showcase my flaws. I want to be relatable. I know that I’m not the only one going through these things and sometimes it’s just nice to read a blog post that you totally get and relate to. Most importantly, writing this helps me find some sort of peace with the situation and I hope I can help someone else find their peace.
Lately I’ve read a lot about coping with stress and anxiety and I know that everyone has different methods, so I’d like to share mine with you. No, none of these are conventional and most of them will make you laugh your ass off, but that’s exactly my point. No two people deal with things in the same ways, so here is my madness that helps me deal with life.
- Color in children’s coloring books. And I don’t mean like the cute little ones. I mean those jumbo pictures that you put in front of a 3-year old to distract them.
- Painting my nails. It’s goofy, I know. I’m not good at painting my nails so it takes a lot of concentration which in turn takes my mind off of everything else.
- A large Coke from Wendy’s (yes Wendy’s, no not McDonald’s). I don’t drink pop but I get massive tension headaches and the only thing that helps is a large fountain Coke and Wendy’s has the tastiest pop.
- Blaring Irish music. I actually have a station built on iHeart Radio of solely Irish music. It’s my favorite thing ever.
- Stress Away essential oil from Young Living. When I feel a panic attack coming on I immediately douse my wrists in this stuff and start taking deep breaths. It doesn’t always prevent a panic attack but it always shortens down the length of the attack.
I know, they’re goofy but it’s what helps me and I truly believe that you just have to find the thing that helps you.
With all of that being said, I’m taking this year to focus on things that I actually care about and that make me happy. I don’t care if it doesn’t lend itself to a perfectly curated aesthetic on Instagram, I’m learning to let go of that shit.
What are your keys to dealing with stress/tension/anxiety?