Dealing with Stress

Whether your in first grade, finishing your doctoral degree, have forty year of experience in your field, or your anywhere in between you deal with STRESS! Stress is a part of everyone's everyday life and that isn't a bad thing. In fact, stress helps motivate you to get the things important to you done. You wouldn't be stressed about a test if you didn't care about your grade. Even though it's good, sometimes are stress can get to be a little too much for us. If you need some help controlling stress here are some tips for you!

1. Talk with someone about what your stressing about:
           Talking with a teacher, a parent, a psychologist, or a friend can be really helpful. They can help you work through your stress so you can think more clearly and work more efficiently. Even if they can't give you any advice you'll probably find that getting everything off your chest will help.

2. Engage in physical exercise:
            Exercising can be a great way to take a break from a project and relax. You don't need to go out and go for a five mile run, but maybe just go outside for a nice walk and get some fresh air. It will allow your brain to take a break and relax. Try not to think about your stressor and just let go.

3. Change your outlook on the problem:
           Sometimes we stress over the smallest things and they really aren't that big of a deal. If your worrying about something try taking a step back and looking at it a different way. For example, if you're stressing about a big problem try breaking up into smaller projects and give yourself a reward every time you finish a part.


4. Pray, meditate or enhance your spiritual life:
            Take sometime to think about yourself and your spiritual life. You'll find that taking time off to focus on a different part of your life can be really helpful to clear your mind and become a little more content before going back to whatever you were stressing about.


5. Find a great relaxation technique:
            It could be a breathing exercise, yoga, or certain stretches. Relaxation techniques can be found online and can be done in a lot of different places. Check out this video of my favorite technique and look for your own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoM57Z8dRUY

Now that I've shared some way to get rid of stress I think it's important to point out some of the not so helpful methods.

Try not to:

1. Ignore your own needs and work herder and fast
2. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away
3. Over or under eat
4. Smoke, drink, or do drugs to relieve stress
5. Over or under sleep
6. Go shopping and overspend to make yourself feel good
7. Get irritable and take it out on others

I know not all of these things are avoidable ( I can get really grumpy when stressed), but try to recognize when your doing them and work to change it.

     Good luck to everyone on your stress management. Remember a bit of stress is good, but you need to keep it in check. Find the stress management technique that works best for you. If you have any good stress management tips feel free to share them in the comments!

Always Get Back Up

     I've always found it interesting how quickly life can change, for better or worse. It's amazing how you can fall down and not know what to do with yourself. I can hardly believe it has been nearly a year since I wrote on this blog. I know why I stopped. It was because I didn't get reelected. I want to explain that it wasn't because I didn't want to continue, but because it saddened me to know that the reason I started this blog couldn't continue to be my reason for writing it. Also, I felt as though it my not be my place to write it anymore. I wrote other blogs in my time away, but none are as near to my heart as this one. That being said I am excited to get things up and running again. I'm going to start by telling you why it is important that you always get back up when you fall down.

     As I mentioned earlier my fall that led to this blog having a long break was not being elected. It hurt for me to realize that I wasn't in that position of leadership anymore. I felt as though something that had become my life was suddenly taken away. Of course it wasn't just taken away from me. I should have been expecting it for a while, but I had gotten distracted from the fact by the new elections. Needless to say I was upset because I felt like I had failed, like I couldn't help anymore. I hadn't wanted to loose, but I did. But as the days past I begin to recognize all that the experience had given me. The experience of running again had given me a chance to meet new people and instill new ideas in others minds. It helped me learn more about who I was as a leader and what I could do for others. Lastly, it showed me how much I had grown from when I ran the first time. It truly did give me an amazing idea of everything HOSA had given me.

     But the point of this post isn't to tell you what loosing taught me, its to tell you how important it is to find strength after loosing. Looking back I realize that after I lost the election I grew so much more because I gave myself the opportunity. I reflected on my loss and I moved on and that was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. When you fail you have a choice, you can sit there and be upset or you can get up and move past it. Moving past loosing gave me the opportunity to see how truly amazing my experience, from winning the first election to loosing the second one, truly was. When you fall down you are blessed with this amazing strength that allows you to become a stronger person.

     I hope everyone who reads this begins to understand the importance of our failures and why it is necessary to get back up  on your own to feet. Without our failures we would all be egotistical jerks who believed ourselves to be invincible. Without our strength to get back up after we failed we would all be left to wither away to nothingness after the first time we fell off a bike. Our failures are what make us who we are. The strength and courage to continue towards our goals after we fail are what create the most amazing leaders. A person who travels far in life is incredible, but a person who has traveled just as far on a much rougher road can be admired even more. This person has shown strength and determination, some of the most important values for a leader. I hope you know that failure will always be a part of life and that finding the strength to move past it is what will change you for the better. No matter what happens, whenever you fall, always get back up and move forward. Never let the world keep you down.