How I Manage Stress

Stress free?! That's never me!

In less than one week, I will take my certification exam to become a family nurse practitioner. In less than 2 months I will graduate (being really optimistic here - just kidding). Needless to say, my stress levels are running high.

There are so many blog posts about ways to manage stress and since there are plenty of those to go around, I'm not going to do that here. Instead, I'm going to tell you how I personally manage stress and if you need an eyewitness, my husband is readily available for your emails.

The ways in which I manage stress:

1. Procrastination. All of a sudden there are so many other things that I must get done. Dishes. Laundry. Reading up on as many blogs as possible. Okay, I must be stressed 24/7 then.

2. Exercising. Who am I kidding. Although running throughout nursing school helped me combat stress and anxiety, it often takes a lot of work to make myself exercise these days. Easy to preach to my patients, much more difficult to implement for myself (hypocrite, anyone?! :D).

3. Sleep. Because sometimes you just need to throw it all down and give your brain a rest.

4. Target. Yes, I am one of those women. Target's clothing, accessories, beauty, and snack aisles are always welcoming and not judging me. Also, I have a soft spot in my heart for the company. They gave me a scholarship for college and that's also where I met Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop in real life when I was about 5 years old. On meeting Shari Lewis + Lamb Chop: it. was. awesome.

5. Playing the role of "most emotionally unstable woman in the world." Except, this is not a play - it's real life, yo. Tiny, meaningless things may set me off and I realize more so the ways in which I need to work on anger, patience, and self-control. Sometimes, it's like watching a scene from a really bad indie film. Tears. Deep internal questions about my life. Unkempt hair. (Dumbfounding my husband.)

How do you handle stress?