Woohoo: chill Charlies

I admire people who know how to relax, who can organize themselves enough to separate their days efficiently into work and play. I find myself letting stress consume my life too often, a fact that became apparent near the end of last term, when my schedule took a turn for the insane.

I’ve lived at home all my life, until last semester when my dad accepted a position in Alberta and left for work within two days of his acceptance. Our house was up for sale, my mom and I had our pets and jobs to worry about, I had started my new position at The Peak, was striving for high grades in class, and facing the stress of the unknown that comes with living alone.

Paradoxically, if I wasn’t so stressed about what I had to do, I could have completed my responsibilities more efficiently, which would have reduced that same stress.

I’m not sure what makes an organized person; maybe the skill comes as a reaction to similar stress faced at some point in their lives, maybe some are better at predicting what that stress will be like, without having to face it. Nonetheless, there is a lot to learn from people who can put their responsibilities or their emotions aside long enough to relax and recharge.

Boohoo: stressed Sallys

If you felt beyond stressed in the recent past, right now is the time to deal with the problem head-on.

My situation taught me that I’m a little in love with the anxiety of stress, because it makes me feel constantly in the process of something. This state has its positives, surely. It must drive some of the most proactive, ambitious individuals out there. But when it consumes your life, like it did mine, then it’s more a problem than an advantage.

As it’s the most relaxed part of the semester right now, I suggest you ask yourself what was happening the last time you were stressed, how you could have changed it, and how the situation might have changed if you did. In school, for instance, could an essay have come from somewhere more honest if you were relaxed while researching it? Could you have found more time for friends and fun, enabling you to enjoy the school that you’re paying a whole lot to be in?

Your calendar can’t be entirely filled with work. If it is, you’re kidding yourself. Pencil in some down time, if not for the efficiency it creates, then for your own sanity.