Another thought I want to share.

This week so far has been really stressful for me and I struggle with feeling exhausted and tired plus I have a headache which I didn’t have in a long time. Is it because I had so much work to do and couldn’t get enough sleep? No, not at all. It’s mental stress. And it’s because I stress myself though there is no need to. There have been some problems with my studies and this worried me so much. I couldn’t think about anything else. The worst thing was that I couldn’t do anything about the situation but waiting. But instead of calming down in the meantime because I couldn’t do anything anyway, I worried and worried.. and today the problem is almost solved. So I stressed about nothing, like so often. Through my studies I’ve learned though that it’s normal that you feel stressed the most about situations you don’t have any control of and can’t do anything yourself to solve a problem.

I also worry about the future a lot. My future at the moment is extremely uncertain, I have no idea what the rest of this year will look like. And this causes stress again. I know though that I should rather take this uncertainty as an exciting challence and as a chance for changing my life to the better. Isn’t it so much better to be excited and wondering about what will come than to just be stuck in the same routine everyday with nothing new happening?

Here are some things I try to do/tell myself to stay calm and reduce stress and the negative thoughts that come with it. Maybe they can be useful to some of you as well:

• If you can do nothing but wait for a solution try to ban thinking about the problem with distracting yourself from it. It’s helpful to get out your home and meet and talk to other people who will get annoyed quite qickly if you start to talk about your problem over and over again.
• See chances, not threats. Remember that you won’t grow if there aren’t any challences in your life and no new things to experience. We often fear that everything will get worse but what if a change means that our life will get better?
• Be thankful for what you have in your life. If you are reading this you are extremely lucky as you belong to the few rich people in this world. Yes, you’re rich. You have a bed, you have enough to drink, internet.. just think about how other people would be happy about having your small problems. I tell myself for what I’m thankful in my life when everything seems to go wrong and everytime I realize how blessed I am.
• Eat well and move your body. Exercising is such a good stress killer! Sometimes when we worry, we aren’t motivated to do anything but I believe that when your body is healthy and you feel good in it, your mind will follow. And also the other way round.
• Relax. Take some time for yourself and just only do what you enjoy. I personally like taking a warm bath or reading a good book before sleeping to get away from it all so that I don’t take my worries into my dreams but rather the story in the novel I read.
• What also helps me to come down and feel happy again is to turn on some happy and motivating music. Even better is singing or dancing to it. It really releases those endorphins!
• Speaking of endorphins: Smile. Even if you just want to cry. Because even if you don’t feel happy, smiling itself will make you feel more happy as the brain reacts to your muscles.
• Talk to someone about it (just not all the time and people will get annoyed, as I mentioned before). It just feels so good when someone tells you that you shouldn’t worry because everything will just fall into place. This really inspires you with confidence.
• Use the law of attraction. Visualize how your problems will be solved and how your life will be when everything turns out the way you want it to. Try to imagine that this already is the case and embrace that good feeling that comes with it. I believe that if you think positively you attract positive people and positive things to your life.
• Look for inspiration. Look for other people in your environment or online who are in a similar position as you and deal with similar problems. Look what worked for them and how they got out of their difficulties.
• Do something! I think this is one of the most important things if you worry about something and it stresses you out. Don’t accept your situation. You hate your job? Look for another one. You want to travel as much as some other people do? Work and save as much as money as possible. You are unhappy with your body? Get off the sofa and move yourself. Just don’t stay in your comfort zone wishing for things to happen. Only you can change your life.