“Giiiiirrrrrrllll, you are doing the MOST.”
Normally in conversations between your friends and yourself, this is a term of saying you’re being “extra” or in a more simplified way, that you’re really going out of your way to do things you genuinely don’t need to. What happens though, when you really are doing the most, but to yourself. Most young adults today are attending school and working at the same time. It gets harder and harder to balance things properly the way you did when you were in your freshman year of high school. You’re probably working part-time at a job you can’t stand 9/10 times, taking 4-6 classes in order to graduate on time with decent grades, and still trying to have a social life while your mom yells in your ear that you’re never home to spend time with the family. A lot of the time, we don’t see how much this stress affects our bodies physically and mentally. Though I do agree you won’t get anywhere in life without giving things 110% of yourself, I also am an advocate that if you don’t give yourself a break from life, you’re only going to have about .3% of yourself to give to the things you love/need to do. Working in retail is one of the hardest things I think I’ve ever had to take on, and my recent time away from it showed me how much I needed a break from everything. This isn’t going to be a sad article about the hardships of retail, but more something to open your mind to the importance of taking time for yourself – as I noticed after I left my job. I had to quit my job in November of this past year in order to go on a trip that was important for my family. At first I was absolutely terrified because I no long was going to have that secure source of income that I needed in order to keep my life in order. Once my plane landed in my destination, it was like a weight I had been carrying for years was off my shoulders and I was able to breathe. I learned about myself on this trip in ways that I didn’t think I still had capability of. I had time to assess myself to see if what I was doing was really the direction I wanted to head in. I looked at whether or not the people in my life were making an impact in my life in a positive way. Most of all, I realized how exhausted with the hours I was working, going to school 3 out of the 7 days and still working on those days. I didn’t have the time to go out like I did in high school, and I felt really bad about that. I don’t feel like I got the full college experience because half of my experience was working or staying up late to study and do homework. Taking time for yourself–to me, is so important. This is mostly due to the fact that I suffer with anxiety and I saw a huge spike of it this past year alone. Many people close to me were always telling me they noticed I wasn’t who I used to be; that I was more distant and I seemed like I was a little bit lost. With my time off, I was able to seek out help with stress management. I pinpointed the issues in my life, and focused on making myself a better version of the woman I am today. I wanted the happiness I felt before stress existed to come back, and though it hasn’t fully replenished, the mental health check and reality check I gave myself genuinely helped me in ways I can’t even express. Mental health is so important today, with more kids and teens falling into the hands of suicide and self-harm, it’s imperative to take into account how you feel on a daily basis. One small thing can lead to a mountain of changes. Many people today are advocating for mental health, and to me it’s such an outstanding thing, because with a younger generation seeing things like the most recent disaster involving Logan Paul and the forest in Japan, we need more of the attention being focused on how important and serious mental health is. There shouldn’t be kids saying that nothing wrong was done because the situation was funny or bizarre. The more time we take to evaluate ourselves, the more we can help educate the generation to come. We tend to take on too many things at once sometimes, because we think we can handle anything and everything. Instead of doing the most, do what you can handle putting on your plate, and if you feel like life really is getting to hard for you, don’t be afraid to seek help. Help is always there to those who ask for it.
http://www.pleaselive.org/hotlines/
depression-mind_custom-f6308a6dde09565c