It's all ok in the end...

If you say so...

Do you give yourself pep talks? How about reciting a positive mantra like the one on the left? Really what I need to know is, when something stressful or challenging pops up in your life, how do you cope and keep on keepin on? Lately, I have been struggling to stay above water mentally when challenges in 1 part of my life pop up. It's like the stress of that 1 thing has my chest in a vice grip and even when there's nothing I can be doing about it (or when I'm trying to focus on something unrelated) I can't seem to let that stressful thing go. I know this isn't a healthy way to approach the stressful situation and it certainly isn't a productive way to go through life, so I'm curious, how do you cope?

I have read several articles about coping with stress (HERE, HERE) and I've found some excellent tips that truly work for me (get fresh air, create routines, exercise, express gratitude to others, talk to yourself as if you're a friend giving yourself advice (love that one!)), but the reality is, when you care a lot about something (who doesn't want to be a great employee, boss, wife, friend, mother, sister, daughter!?) not allowing uncertainty or a challenge to suffocate you in unrelated areas of your life can be extremely difficult. 

SO. True.

It certainly reframes things when you consider that anxiety is just as created in your mind as positive creativity doesn't it? And when all else fails, a wise fish once said...

The Lemonade Stand is Closed.

They say when life gives you lemons...

I am in a post-vacation mindfuzz (that's the G-rated version of clusterf**k in case you were wondering). Though my first day back at work was nothing terrible, it was especially work-y (go figure) and my mind is a bit cluttered/overwhelmed by upcoming events (moving) and travel (8 weeks, 4 states, 2 countries). No matter how hard I tried yesterday, I could not turn my lemons into lemonade. For example:

- I woke up in a toilet paper-less apartment. Nothing like starting your day by yelling for your husband to bring you the bedside tissue box.

- It rained. A rainy day in NYC is the most opposite thing from a sunshiney day in Maine one could possibly experience

- I packed a gym bag feeling super "work off that second (third?) serving of lobster mac" motivated, only to realize I failed to include a sports bra. No comment on how that spin class worked out (a bouncing good time!?)

I pride myself on seeing the sunny side no matter how funkified my mood, but funkified I was. I resorted to old techniques (call mom; listen to upbeat music; dress in a favorite outfit; look at old pictures from a happy day) and I tried new techniques (plan a delicious dinner to look forward to; splurge on a SoulCycle class) but nothing seemed to work. I wasn't even in the mood to online shop!! My revelation after all this was that maybe it's ok to just funk-out sometimes. My determination to make myself feel happier actually turned into added stress as I failed to find a way to "snap out of it". I guess we're all entitled to the occasional very un-merry mood and when it hits we should be willing to embrace it, face it and then move on. Screw lemonade, sometimes sour lemons taste just fine.