Stress Week: What Is Stressing You Out?

Stressed Out? Let's talk about it this week!

Stress comes from all different sources. We all know that there is both good stress and bad stress. Good stress helps us to progress and move forward, like when we have more responsibility placed on us. An example of good stress in my life right now is focusing more on this blog. I have a passion for writing, collaborating and striving towards good health so this blog is fun for me. 

What are some good stresses in your life?

With the good, often times, comes the bad. We all probably have more experience with “bad stress”. Nevertheless, despite having experience with it, bad stresses can rock our world and derail us from our goals. Sometimes we handle stress by panicking or going into “freeze mode”. It is totally okay to take a step back, assess how we are going to handle the stress and take a deep breath. As a matter of fact that is necessary to handle it well. We will talk more about how we deal with stress later in the week.

Today, I want you to think or make a list (writing it down can be therapeutic) of all the things that are stressing you out. I chose stress for this week’s theme because spring brings a lot of transition.

School years are being wrapped up, whether you are a teacher, parent or student. That means final exams, standardized testing, festivals, teacher gifts, parties and planning for summer fun.

Stress does not only come when our calendar gets full. Stress can also come with worry and anxiety. For me, I am most stressed out of the unknown. You will see this in my following “stress list”. I am constantly telling myself to not worry about things until there is something to worry about. Finances, health, relationships, loved one’s stresses ALL make it onto our lists.

What Is Stressing Me Out Right Now!

Moving, moving, moving!

Where are we going to live?

Will we be able to buy or will be rent?

What kind of place and area will we be able to afford?

Will I have to get rid of a ton of stuff?

Will our shipment from China be over weight?

Will I be able to stay on track with exercise and healthy choices during our move? (I don’t want to fall into lazy choices because it is easier or cheaper!)

What needs to be shipped, what needs to be packed in suitcases?

What needs to be donated?

How will the kids like their new home and school?

Am I doing enough for my kids to support them through this transition? (is there really an enough?)

How can I be a better woman, wife, mom, sister, friend and daughter?

Are my kids making good choices in their lives?

How can I support hubby in his stress?

Now I am going to ask you to divide your list into two categories of IN MY CONTROL and OUT OF MY CONTROL (OR IT IS TOO EARLY FOR ME TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT). Instead of rewriting my list I color-coded it.

Some were easy to categorize, others I had to think about for a minute. It is pretty obvious that we cannot control other people’s actions. But sometimes that is exactly what we want to do and that causes us a lot of stress. We have to remember that people make their own choices and the only thing that we can control is how we react to their choices. (That can be a whole other blog post!)

I DO NOT want this to add to your stress so just think about your list for now. Tomorrow we will talk about how we deal with our stresses.

As always, I welcome all of your input.

This is about US, not ME!