What's The Worst That Could Happen?

What do you stress about? Job? Money? Relationships?

All of the above?

Yes, yes, stress is a part of life and everyone must deal with it and all of that. At the same time, have you ever considered the possibility that maybe, the stress that you go through could be turned around by just altering your perception a little bit? I know, it's easier said than done. I myself get stressed out and sometimes end up falling physically ill because of all the stress that I take on. Is it worth it? Definitely not. Is there a way to handle it? Hell yes!

I had been stressed for months about life in general. Not knowing where I'm headed and all of those existential questions that come to you when you're prone to overthinking things. I also have this really bad habit of taking things too personally and then making other people's problems my own. And stressing about my own problems and everyone else's problems and things that I thought 'might' go wrong was taking a toll on my health and general wellbeing.

Then I had this conversation with a close friend of mine. She told me something that struck a chord. She said, "What's the worst that could happen? You'll lose that job, or that time you put in? But think of it this way, you now know what NOT to do and this way you get better and better at what you do". It sounded fantastical to me at the time because I don't really like change. Change scares me. So when someone tells me that it's ok if something is ending or if I'm losing something because that's not the end of the world, I'm skeptical about it and I'm vary about the impending change that comes along with that particular situation.

I had been taught not to quit when things got difficult, so sometimes even though I knew that a situation needed to change, I would persevere until I have exhausted myself mentally and physically even though there's no possible way that the outcome could change. So that more I thought about what my friend had said, the more I realised that she was right. Staying in a situation even though it's harmful to you is not healthy, and persevering a stressful environment that's draining you and turning you into a pessimistic shell of a human being is not an admirable trait. In truth, you are being somewhat of a drama queen because you have now learned to live off the drama and the stress that comes out of the situation and you don't know how to stop. You're almost behaving like an addict.

The only way to get out of it is to go cold-turkey. The only possible solution is to change. Big scary change, right? But it has to be done if you are to live a marginally stress-free life. Most of the stress that you go through comes from being inactive both mentally and physically. You might be working from 9am to 4am and you might be a big shot at your workplace but what else are you doing with your life? I for one realised that my routine went like this - I wake up and then work and then stay up late watching the latest thing on Netflix and then fall asleep somewhere between 3 and 4am - sounds terribly unhealthy right? So I decided to give change a go. I decided to exchange Netflix for books and exercise. I also decided to devote at least an entire hour a day to learning something new. I decided to distance myself from situations and people who added to my stress.And finally, I decided to stop taking things way too personally and let it go. And to my surprise, it worked.

*image from Google

To all the people who are stressing about everything in life and wondering if things will ever get better for you, there are a few things that I learned from my own experience. It may or may not work for you but you can give it a go and then slowly develop your own mechanism to deal with stress.

1. Write it down

It sounds silly, but when you keep all the stress that you go through hidden in your head, it makes it worse. Sometimes you don't want to share it with other people, so the next best thing is to write it down. Don't filter yourself, just write whatever you feel and then let the feeling go. It's worked for me and I hope it works for you too.

2. Read

You don't need to be reading Shakespeare or Dostoevsky or be debating the Big Bang Theory. Just read whatever makes you feel good inside. It could even be a comic strip in the newspaper. But try to read something every day. You binge watch so many series and movies that it somehow adds on to the stress that you feel inside. Cut out all that noise, put on some of your favourite music and just get lost in a book for an hour a day.

3. Exercise

This is my kryptonite. I would start exercising and keep at it for a few days and then suddenly find myself slacking off. And suddenly it's been a month and I feel terrible about myself. It's not easy, but exercise really teaches you patience and endurance. It's made me realise that there's nothing that I can't handle. If I can go that 30 minutes without collapsing like a sweaty mess on the ground, I can handle a little bit of stress!

4. Keep your circle small

You might have a thousand friends on social media, but at the end of the day when you're truly miserable there's only a handful of people that are there for you. So choose your friends wisely and cut those 'takers' off from your life. When you realise that you deserve better, you will automatically stop accepting anything less.

I still have hard days at work or with relationships and sometimes even with myself. But I now know how to handle it better and to stop taking things so personally when something goes wrong. You get what you put into life, so basically everything that happens to you is just life mirroring your own actions.

At the end of the day we all just want to be happy so do the things that make you feel good and stop worrying about what the world thinks of you.

#stress #life #wellbeing #exercise #happiness