Wow! My goodness, this week I was so incredibly stressed. I was so stressed that I didn’t know what to do. Picture this: my plate was filled with a mountain of food — and I didn’t even have an appetite. This week on Sundays with Margo, I’m going to walk you through how I conquered my stressful week!
If I am feeling any sort of emotion that isn’t happy, i.e. weird, sad, stressed, tired, etc., I will be deeply introspective about what’s going on with myself. I talk a little bit about this in my article from last week on disconnecting and self-care. Ultimately, it’s always super important to take time for yourself and have an understanding of your emotions.
In order to start chomping at that mountain of food and tasks I had to get at this week, I began by writing down everything that was making me stressed. Grab a pad of paper, a journal — something tangible (typing can be a little stressful and handwriting is proven to be a better stimulus for your brain).
Write out everything that is stressing you out. Tip: make sure to also write out the reasons why you are stressed. This way you can use your mind to comfort yourself, while thinking logically. It can help you determine what can be most effective to help yourself out! One could argue that this might stress you out more, but it’s helpful to see everything in front of you as opposed to it being scattered about in your brain. I then wrote out a huge to-do list of all the tasks I had to do in order to relieve my stress. This isn’t just homework. I made sure to include activities that would bring me joy and help relieve my stress during the week.
This balance is incredibly important — you are not only doing what you need to get done in your academic life, but you are also doing things for yourself and engaging in self-care. The most important thing about dealing with stress is getting out of the slump as soon as possible and dealing with everything head on. Here’s to a minimally stressful week (and life!).
Until Next Sunday,
Margo