To the Max

I'm not good at stress. No truly, I crumble under the weight of excessive stress and intense pressure. It has been my weakness for a long time and although I have learned some tools and tactics to manage each day and year better than the last, it still just gets to me. But somehow, I am either drawn to stress or stress is drawn to me and I cannot escape it. I understand that some level of stress in life is unavoidable and even necessary and healthy to manage, but prolonged, compounding stress is cut from a different and adverse cloth. That is the stress that pops up too often for me and that I don't do well with, coupled with the fact that my coping skills are mediocre at best.

As time has passed and I have grown, I've come to make room in my life for stress knowing that I cannot escape it and knowing that the type of stress I deal with will change and fluctuate. I'm grateful for people around me that ground me and remind me that life is so much bigger than the stressors that plague us, and that the scars we wear from the valley seasons are meant to make us and our lives even more beautiful. I am living proof that stress does not have to take over, we just have to learn to coexist. As I have learned to coexist with stress, I have learned some effective lessons that I'd like to share:

1. Be open and accept help: it is hard sometimes to let people in especially when hard things are going on, but so much of life happens and is learned in relationship and that includes coping mechanisms, which for me has included learning to lean on others

2. Find your balance: key word here is "your" as balance looks different for everyone, but it is incredibly important to live in the present, and discover all that keeps you at peace and brings you joy and keep those things at the forefront

3. Be kind and honest to yourself: we can be so quick to offer a kind word or a compliment to others but in the same breath be so demeaning to ourselves. Our bodies, our minds, our spirits carry so much, and we need to be kind to them and honest about our needs and experiences in those vessels.