The fun thing about living at home is that your parents sometimes do things for you. For example, the other week my mother bought me toothpaste. Sometimes they provide me with a personal mail delivery service, where if I'm out of the house when they fetch the mail I will find it conveniently located on my bed when I arrive home. However, today when I arrived home it was nothing of the sort...
I've been pondering the implications of my mother leaving an article titled "Just Relax! (Do you always feel stressed? Here's how to take control.)" on my bed. Does this mean it's simply time to face reality?
I essentially exist in a two-realm world: school and everything else. In one, I lack motivation; in the other, I have an abundance of it. I'm currently: confused on how this happened.
This article found in a September issue of some magazine my mother (apparently) reads is supposed to be my guide to better health. Indeed it's not just better health we seek but rather a straying from the typical American woes of wanting too much and having too little. And like all things American the article claims that you can "cut stress in minutes." Oh how I have a certain affinity for instant gratification. And just in case the process is too complicated, it comes in five easy to handle steps.
Look, I realize that "it doesn't have to be that way", AVH would tell me that all the time, that I'm 'choosing to feel stressed' and that I don't have to choose to feel that way. I could tell myself that maybe if I didn't procrastinate I wouldn't be stressed. I could also probably tell myself that I could not do all of my work and probably still be okay. I could tell myself that if my French teacher would give us a quiz on Tuesday I might just actually put some effort into the homework (or more realistically, I might actually do the homework). Then, perhaps only then, I wouldn't spend my week with that underlying "oh god I'm fucked (!!!)" feeling.
But here's the problem, the article is attempting to make us not be American. Seriously. I feel like Americans are born to be stressed, like it's supposed to be an element of our lives. Here are my rants.
1. Take a deep breath or two
The only way anyone is going to pay attention to their breathing is while they're sitting in the car driving. Or at least that's when I would pay attention to my breathing. These days we have cell phones and iPods which promptly remove any static time in which to clear our heads of those voices...
2. Think of good stuff
Yeah, like how I'm lucky to be alive but how Food Snob likes to remind me that we're all going to die because of an oil crash, or something. Thinking good thoughts inevitably leads to me thinking about bad stuff. For example the sequence would go as follows: 'aw AVH sent me an SMS' to: 'la;skfnaw;len why can't he be here?!'
3. Slow down
Multi-tasking = no, no. Like, yeah right. If you even try to go the speed limit people get pissed off. Heck, people get pissed if I ride my bike too slow on campus.
4. Change the tape
I suppose if I stopped telling myself that I'm fucked I would probably feel better. Ok, I'm not really fucked. At least I'm not if I start doing homework on the weekends.
5. Let it go
Ok, so maybe I can't do 4 clubs, 16 credits, and ride horses. I think letting stuff go is good though, but not letting important homework assignments go. Or going to the dentist. Or doing my French homework...
I tend to be in a negative mood on Sunday nights when I sit down to do the work I didn't do on Friday and Saturday. Ok, I choose to be in a negative mood. It stems from the fact that I would simply rather be in bed... mm, bed.
Or maybe it's just the fact that I have four daunting days ahead of me before the next weekend when I can slack off.
I don't think I need to de-stress, I think I just need to improve my work-ethic. I am starting to understand why university is supposed to be a four year process rather than a five year process.
I think I will be de-stressed when I'm sitting on a beach (like the woman in the article) with my face turned to the sun. Really.
Me.
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4 comments:
It's easy to have no stress, just quit AP and get a job as a cashier at Meijer's. Your only responsibility is to stand in one place 8 hours a day. It's just about what you want, and maybe "stress" is just motivation to get it.
I remember this. I mean, I remember feeling this way. So I made the change. I did homework all weekend....I mean among other things, but now as J's return draws closer, I'm not stressed about the fact that I'll have work to do when he arrives and I won't be able to take my eyes off of him so the work won't get done. I already did it.
Maybe it's easier said than done. It's that whole self discipline they taught us about somewhere along the road. I mean, you take on way too much. I take on too much. No one in their right mind should be able to work 36 hours a week, attend 5 classes AND do the work for all of them AND do well. But you have to have the mantra of "I can do this. duh."
LEAH!!! You can do this. Duh
p.s. I still haven't figured out what AP is.
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