Take a bath. If you don’t have a bath, take a shower. My brother says to never make a big decision before you take a shower. You may not be on the verge of making a decision, but water has a magical way of clearing your head.

When you’re toweled off, take a look at what you are doing when you are away from your stressor.

Stress drains you emotionally. It drains your soul, in a way. Are you doing things that are filling you back up? Or are you doing things that deplete you further?

If you are ‘blowing off steam,’ you are just hitting the pause button on your stress for a few hours. And when that pause is over, you are even more depleted and it is even harder to face a difficult day of stress.

Here is a list of things that probably don’t help: Staying up late. Spending time with people who you don’t want to become more like. Drinking in excess. Sleeping with people you don’t have feelings for. Watching a lot of TV or movies. Going on Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.

And a list of things that probably do: Good sleep. Reading. Exercise. Spending time with people who you admire. Being outside. Planning things that make you smile.

De-stressing your life is not a project. It is a process. Think of it like cleaning – if you clean your home as a project, it will get cleaned once and then slide back to being a mess. If you want it to stay clean, implement a process that keeps it so.

Try not to put a lot of pressure on yourself to make things happen fast. Do you think you’ll be happy in life? I do. And when you realize that your story ends well, the temporary gap you are experiencing now won’t see as worrisome.

Relax. Be patient with yourself. Take one thing at a time. An entire life can be daunting.

Un abrazo,

Zack

PS. I’m writing again!