Infinite Ink

Marking my calendar

I never thought about stress management when I was younger. Stress wasn't even a word in my dictionary back then. Sure, there was exam season and all the pressure that comes with it, but that was a part of student life. Now, it seems that stress isn't just a word in the dictionary, it is the name of the encyclopedia and has its own twenty-volume set of books. Stress can wreck your mind and body and it isn't a pleasant experience so avoiding it and managing it is a skill best learned early on.

The only trouble is, where to begin? If you look at the self-help department of the bookstore, it is full of books on mindfulness and organization and hope and meditation and awareness. You need a book to teach you how to choose the right book to read out of all of those. YouTube is full of motivational videos which are nice to watch but when it comes to carrying out what they say, that is another matter altogether.

One starting point I have found for managing my stress is to have my routine structured in a way that I block it from building up in the first place. That means I tick off all the right boxes when it comes to sleep, water intake and food. One thing that I have to make a priority is setting aside time to write every day, specifically blocking out thirty minutes in which I sit down and write--no self-sabotaging my own writing by letting my inner editor run unchecked. That means I sit down, I write, I let the hobby do its healing as far as stress management is concerned, and of course, since it's my hobby I have fun doing it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: consistency is key. Keeping up good habits that build you rather than bad habits that break you is a daily struggle. If a day or week slips by with a good habit undone, the key here is not to let that get you down and to pick it up again as soon as you can. I've found that beating myself up excessively over not being consistent isn't going to help me actually be consistent. 

My brother has a calendar that he uses to track his daily to-do list. Mine isn't that extensive but I've set it up to track water, multivitamins, and writing, starting today. The fun part is seeing the chain build up as you mark every day on the calendar. What is even better is seeing the change unfold in your life. I hope I get to see the change in my life for good soon.