stress management Archives - Slowly Sipping Coffee

Life Can Be SO “Overwhelming”: How I Tame It

Now that I’m back to just having a single source of income, my adjunct position, I immediately have a crazy sense of pressure to “get back earning”, and “get a job” or “create a job” or “hit it big with day trading”, as soon as I study up a little more on the Dummies Guide to Day Trading. Then I won’t have to work or find a job, lol. Since day trading isn’t my go to, I’m more of a horse racing gambler if we’re admitting ways that we gamble with our money, I’ll have to keep up the job search and income stream creation. Man, does it feel overwhelming. I’ve had trouble sleeping at nights, trouble staying asleep, and just a hard time turning the old brain down from 11 to a reasonable 3 or 4. My weight has even started coming back from a lot more stress eating. I’m aware of it, I just don’t care at this stage, lol.

My brain is constantly thinking about next steps, potential income opportunities, creating those opportunities, and also job hunting in the meantime. Oh, and then there’s the aspect of adding in family and people I care about and having not just time, but mental free time to hang out with them. It’s not the same if I’m laying next to someone and talking and sharing thoughts and feelings when my brain is anywhere but right there. That’s when I know I have to stop and handle it before it turns into a “tsunami of worry”. Here’s how I’ve been dealing with reigning those feelings in.

Embracing the Suck

Recently, a LOT has changed around here, like, a whole lot. My living situation, income situation, financial situation, relationship situation, hell, everything except a new vehicle to be honest. Although, TIL, I’m making $60/day as a sub which means I just got a raise! Yes! Crushing it!! Sweetest $8/hr evr earned. But seriously, through all of this, positivity needs to reign supreme and I need to avoid getting into the rut of depression, sadness, and all the feels that come along with major life transitions such as this. Or do I? Do I really need to stay super positive and Mary Poppins-esque? Hell no! I think a situation like this, calls for a different tact, a new approach, and one I call, “embracing the suck”.

What is “embracing the suck” all about? Well, put simply, you don’t avoid, minimize, or even improve your situation, until you’ve fully accepted it for what it is. Maybe it’s just a temporary setback that is an opportunity for new hope, exciting things, and a new direction. Maybe it’s not temporary but permanent, and you feel “stuck” about that situation. For me, embracing the suck is gathering all those stress inducing worries into a single place and see if I can do anything about them to make them suck just a little bit less.

This cake made my day suck a little less…

I liken it to a could of flies that suddenly shows up buzzing around your head. You don’t want them there but how do you get rid of them effectively? Sure, you can flail wildly about, but you’ll probably just look ridiculous and as soon as you stop, all that energy was wasted, because guess what’s still there? That cloud of annoying flies – i.e. “worries”. You could also choose to do nothing and accept that this is your current situation, and just embrace it. Let the flies crawl all over your face, ON your eyes, in your nose even. To me, this is how intrusive some of my worries get… When you hit the point that you DON’t want those flies (worries) bugging you so much, try this. Stop, focus on each fly, and pick ONE to attack (embrace the suck), address it and then move to the next one. Here’s why I find it helpful.