When life feels like too much to handle, how do you deal?
“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.” – Mother Teresa
Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and stressed. I feel as though I have to cram too much into my days, like stuffing an already overflowing suitcase. This usually happens to me around assignment deadline time, but this time everything is piling up. I try to meditate twice a day to keep my sanity, but even my meditation sessions seem tense. With university assignments, finding a placement, dissertation; work; family; friends here and far away; my long distance relationship; Four Leaf Clover; staying healthy; sleep; etc… I just don’t seem to be handling it very well at the moment. I wish I could blog at least once a week because it is so fulfilling and allows me to feel in my element, but other “priorities” make it near impossible.
When there is so much stress raining down, it’s harder to keep things in perspective and easier to let those negative thoughts seep in. I’ve had trouble balancing and managing my time for as long as I can remember and university has made that even worse. You always give me great advice, so I’d love to know: how do you do it? How do you create balance in your life and prevent all the negativity from pouring in and clouding your days?
23 February 2013 / Misc. or Me
Tags: advice, balance, creating balance, help, time
Comments
6 March 2013 - 2:58 pm
Hey, Eva! I’ve missed you! I’d figured you had to quit blogging because of school, since you were no longer showing up on my Blogger reading list. Then yesterday I discovered that your blog was “hidden” on that list, for reasons I still don’t understand. Anyway, I “unhid” you and am glad to see you’re still blogging away, despite all that you have on your plate.
I know all about feeling overwhelmed at times – I think most of us do. I went through a lot of that last year, as we sold our house, moved from it to one rental then to another rental and then built a house and moved into it. Whew! Talk about stressed. Wish I had words of wisdom to impart – simplifying as much as possible, not neglecting self-care (which is always the first thing we seem to throw overboard just when we need it most), prioritizing, counting blessings – all great ideas, but sometimes there just really IS too much going on and all of it seems important. I agree with Jeannie, it’s always temporary – just do your best and realize that in times like these, your perspective can be very skewed. It’ll get better.
Anyway, it’s nice to catch up with you and your blog again! 🙂
8 March 2013 - 4:39 pm
Hey, Eva!
Don’t know if you’re familiar with the blog “Zen Habits” (whose author is a fellow vegan, yay!), but his post today spoke right to your question so I thought I’d share it!
8 March 2013 - 8:00 pm
Thank you so much Jeannie and Laloofah!
Jeannie – you’re so right, I’m constantly being reminded that sleep is so much more important than I realize.
Laloofah – That article was great! It’s one of those things you know, but need to keep getting reminded about. I need to re-subscribe to his mailing list 🙂 I’m glad you found my blog again, I need to start catching up!
4 April 2013 - 5:44 am
I definitely suffer from the same problems. I found uni particularly hard, but work/life balance was also quite a hard one for me to find.
16 April 2013 - 5:06 pm
[…] My last post asked you how you deal with stress and all that life hands us. There are many things one can do to create a balance, but the truth is, I already know the main solution… and that is to trust the process; trust that the Universe knows what it’s doing, because it does. […]
23 February 2013 - 3:28 am
I wrestle with the same quandries and puzzles. Key is getting enough sleep and lately I have been writing down my thoughts, labeling the distortion in them and then talking back to the distortion with some more rational thought.
Breathe and realize that this is temporary. You are the deep lake, not the waves on the top.
Blessings to you. Count them at day’s end.