Be in charge of your stress

Be in charge of your stress

The day starts with stress, continues with more, and finishes with a new wave of anxiety for the next day. So much pressure is put on us by our partners, children, relatives, friends, employers, colleagues, social media, unrealistic societal standards and expectations and the FOMO -fear of missing out. 

Some stress is good. It is productive and creative. It can propel us to overcome our comfort zone and improve or change our practices. But lots of stress is unhealthy and seriously unproductive. It does not benefit us; on the contrary, it contributes to deteriorating our physical and mental health. In the long run, it can get the worst out of us.

Nowadays, we want to be everywhere and successfully achieve everything while maintaining a bright smile. Because the modern person should simultaneously be a loving partner, an admirable professional in their field, a caring parent, a reliable friend, an omnipresent family member, an adventurous traveller, an experience-collector and a healthy lifestyle advocate who has achieved inner peace and life balance. Only a robot can keep up with these expectations. Please!

Social media depict and promote a lush way of living. Everything is feasible if you set your mind to it. Each day provides the unique opportunity for you to shine and show off your outstanding skills in juggling ten tasks at once… with remarkable success. And if you cannot keep up, you probably do something wrong. And you feel guilt for your lack of unparalleled performance.

At the end of the day, everyone and everything can trigger feelings of inadequacy and self-consciousness about our life choices. About how we have selected to spend our days, weeks and years. About our pick on leading our working, social, personal, and romantic life. 

The point is whether we feel good in our own skin, can support our choices and live up to their consequences. Whether we can take responsibility for, support our decisions and act accordingly. There will always be pressure to do more. To be more. Nevertheless, if this pressure derives from other people’s expectations about us and our lives, then it is ultimately up to us whether we let it affect us and it what degree. It always comes down to how we want to live our life. Our time is limited to spending it drowned in guilt, remorse and fruitless efforts to please others.