Greetings Readers,

Welcome back to the blog!

Life can be stressful and overwhelming at times, and that’s just a part of life. It’s both natural and normal to have those feelings, and we may even fear that they might never end. But believe me, stress is never forever, and there are ways to cope.

In today’s blog, I’m sharing with you, just some of my strategies on how I cope with stress and overwhelming feelings. But before anything, I just wanted to point out, everything starts with recognizing your feelings, this is (at least for me), usually the first step. I need to recognize it first and foremost, accept it, and then I work my ways to cope.

Here are just a few ways how I cope when life gets overwhelming (not in chronological order):

Cry It Out:

There are people that see crying as a sign of weakness, and I wouldn’t agree with that. Even (and especially) as an adult, I believe, crying is a sign of strength, rather than a sign of weakness. Looking back, I think I cried a lot as a kid, but then I also think, I cry MORE as an adult, and I’m OK with that. Crying for me means: I’m not giving up yet, I’m still fighting, and I still care. I even found that, if I allow myself to cry for a little while because of a stressful situation, I then do better at handling the stress in a more positive way.

Listen to Music or Sing:

I once wrote a blog on music is the love of my life, and how much I love listening to music and my involvement with playing different musical instruments growing up, but, what I didn’t say in that blog was, how music is also great for my mental health and for handling stress. My taste for music also often changes with my mood. So, when life is overwhelming or when I feel stressed, I could put on soft music to calm myself down. Or, I could put on heavy metal and scream my lungs out if I need to allow my stress and strong emotions to come out. So ultimately, music helps me greatly to deal with stress.

Talk to Someone:

Humans are social beings, we need to communicate and connect with others. This is true (for me at least) when I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed, it’s so important for me to talk to someone, it’s another helpful coping mechanism. Find another person to communicate your stress, will less likely bring on stress for that other person, but will likely help the person that’s stressed. Here, what’s also important to point out is, of course, is to find the RIGHT PERSON to talk to, just to avoid bringing you (the person that’s stressed) more stress!

Take a Break or Take a Rest:

Sometimes, when faced with a stressful situation, it may help to remove yourself from the situation just for a little while. This is not to deny that the situation doesn’t exist, or to run away from it. But instead, to allow or give yourself a break, or a rest from it. Sometimes, when I feel overwhelmed, I might not always remain rational. So, by removing myself from the situation for a while, it might help to gain some rationale. Examples of taking a break or a rest could be: taking a walk, watch a movie, or taking a nap.

Take Deep Breaths:

Who else find themselves forgetting to breathe during a stressful or overwhelming situation? It’s not that uncommon! So, remember to take deep breaths. This is also one proven helpful and useful stress management/coping skill.

Lastly, I hope in writing this blog, I could help someone that’s in a stressful situation to know that, you’re never alone. There are ways to cope, and more importantly, there are people out there to help, just reach out.

By: The Invisible Vision Project