Many of us I'm sure, can remember a time when they were younger where someone told them "you don't know anything about stress" or "you're too young to be stressed".
Statements like this used to drive me crazy as a child. There were so many moments that even if I were to spend time thinking about them today, would invoke the same level of anxiety as they did then.
Stress does not discriminate. However, I have often found myself down playing my level of stress or anxiety because “things have to get done”. Even though as adults we have demands and priorities that have to be met, our state of mind while completing these tasks matters. I can be highly anxious, and have been that way since I was a child. I think that we do children a disservice when we don’t acknowledge how things that may seem small to adults may deeply bother children, and if they are not given the tools when they are younger to process this stress, anxiety my continue or even grow into adulthood.
This blog is designed to be as transparent as possible so I’m going to keep it honest. I was supposed to write this blog days ago but never could bring myself to write it. I have probably been dealing with a level of performance anxiety since I was in high school, but just chalked it up to being a procrastinator. I would tell myself and others things like “I work better under pressure”, or “I waited till the last minute to write it down, but I have it all planned out in my head”. Although these statements have some truth in them, the truth that I continued to ignore was that I was afraid that my work would not be good enough. So much so, that I have been on the verge of failing more than one class in my graduate and undergraduate career, due to turning in assignments late.
I’m sure at this point you might be wondering what this has to do with stress. By not addressing my fear, I have made myself susceptible to very high levels of stress. My stress manifests itself in different ways. Sometimes I can’t eat or sleep, sometimes I get migraines, most commonly I have a non-stop internal battle with myself wondering why can’t I JUST DO IT! Eventually I will push through and finish the task, but that stress does not leave my body right away. Sometimes it may take days for me to emotionally return to normal.
In keeping with my message of self-care, I am now working to address this issue, but change does not happen overnight. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Deepak Chopra, and there were multiple things that he said that stuck out to me. He outlined the 6 pillars of well-being, and one of them was 'managing stress'. He explained that mindful awareness is important that you have to be present in whatever experience you are having. At first, I wondered what he could possibly mean by that. But I believe that for me it means getting to the root of my fear. Fear is definitely a topic that I will be revisiting a number of times on this blog, as I feel like it stands in the way of a lot of things in my life, and I believe it may stand in the way for other people as well.
Please comment below your ideas on stress in your life, or in general. I would love to hear what you guys have to say!
Let’s continue to get this #CocoonWork!