Back to the Carolinas: How I Manage Stress

Sometimes you have to go forward towards the wind to see the other side

-Nadine Ntumba

If you know me, you would know that I get stressed out easily and at time I don't handled it well. One of my colleague in London once said that my favorite excuse for not going out to dinners with the girls was "I'm too Stress." I sued that line numerous  times and it became a party of my identity.

After grad school, I realized that the reason I struggled so much with my stress management in London was because I live so much in my head and I wasn't dealing with stress the way that I used to.

I didn't journaled a lot during my times in London nor did not run a lot. Towards the end of my time there, I ran several local 5ks but I only ran on the weekends instead of every other day like I use to in Law School or undergrad. 

Journaling and running was how I used to manage my stress but for some unknown reason I didn't in London.

Nowadays, I developed a whole system on managing stress and so far it's been good. 

Here's how I manage stress:

1. I pray about whatever is stressing me out
2. I write down what's stressing me out
3. After writing down what's stressing me out, I cross out the things that I cannot control nor change. 
4. Then I look at the things that I can change or control, I write down how I can solve the issue or if the issue can be solved.
5. If my schedule permits, I go run. If I cannot run, I schedule a run as soon as possible. When I do go run, I would run for hours if i'm extremely stressed out. Lately, I've been running for 2 hours every other day. Running helps clear my mind.
6. I DON'T make any permanent decision when I'm stressed out
7. I remind myself that anything is POSSIBLE and everything is DOABLE. 
8. Then I face the issue that's stressing me out head on.
9. After facing the issue, i write down what happened and what I've learned from the situation.
10. I pray. 

~xoxo