Friday, February 12, 2016

How to Handle Stress Like an Adult

On Wednesday I blogged about how stressed I've been this week. A lot has been going on and I've been feeling kind overwhelmed. So, aside from writing fussy blog posts, how does one deal with an extra large load of stress? Well, for me, dumplings help.

On Thursday Jenny and I realized that our collective marital stress level had reached a critical mass and needed attending to. For a long time now I've been wanting to go to Bao Bao, a hip little dumpling place here in Portland. Jenny decided we needed a date and that would be the place. I agreed.

The food was really good. As we laughed at dumplings slipping off our chopsticks and drank calming herbal tea we managed to take time to really talk. With all this stress it's hard to find real time for each other, so making this time was important.

I'm really bad at being in touch with my emotions. I'll feel emotions like anger, stress, and sadness but have trouble nailing down what I'm actually feeling stressed/angry/sad about. I've found that a helpful tool for me is to make a list. So as we sat together I made a list of all the things leading to me feeling overwhelmed and overstressed. 28 items in 5 categories ranging from health to work to finances (always freaking finances.) It was immensely helpful to get it all down. Once I could identify the issues I could begin trying to think how to deal with them.

After our wonderful lunch Jenny and I went back to work. Things have become arguably more stressful, but it was really helpful to take that time for ourselves and focus on one another all the same.

So that's my post for the day. Confession, both today's post and Wednesday's post were written in bed on my phone right before going to sleep. With all that's been going on it's been hard to take time to sit down at a keyboard and craft an actual post. I'm hoping next week will see a decrease in stress and increase in personal creativity. Who knows what will happen? That's right, future you knows because you read my blog. Good job future you, and good night.

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