Chapter Five Managing Stress

      I feel that this chapter came at an appropriate time. It is starting to get into that time of the semester when there are a lot of papers and projects due. I find that trying to balance school work, my job, social life, and wellness is getting to be quite a challenge. I was particularly interested when I read about how change can produce a great deal of stress. Right now in my life there has been a lot of change going on. Moving into a new place, making new friends, starting grad school, new job, and possible new relationships are all a huge part of life at the moment. They are all positive changes as too, but yet they still produce a lot of stress.

     I could relate to Arista’s story. I sometimes can be a bit of a perfectionist too.  Also, I tend to try to do too much in too little time. It may be impossible, and I still try to force everything in. The result is that I get burnt out disappointed. Burn out is something that I dealt a lot with as being manager of a subway. Day in and day out I was running around to meet all the demands of the store. I didn’t have much help from anyone else so it was all on me. It took my friends, boyfriend, and family to get me to realize what was happening. Even my coworkers and boss expressed their concern. Lack of sleep and an unhealthy habit began to take control of my life. I have since realized that it is important to make people happy, but when you start letting yourself down that could lead to a lot of unhealthy issues. I even remember falling asleep during the day and paying attention to my eating habits.

       So as not to fall back into that burnout again, I want to work on a couple of things. One thing is that I want to work on managing my time better and working on my priorities. Secondly, I would like to get myself to better understand that if I can’t complete every single thing I want to in a day, that that’s alright.  Thirdly, I want to focus on getting more sleep and having a healthier diet. Lastly, I want to involve myself in healthy stress relieving activities such as meditation and going to the gym.

Cory, G., Schneider Corey, M. (2010). I Never Knew I Had a Choice. (pgs. 133-164).