If today you’re feeling stressed out of your mind, so am I.This week has me wanting to move to the mountains somewhere and live in a cave until the end of time with just my french press and a lot of biscuits. Today, on my day off, I stressed more than I do on the days I’m actually at work. And today, I had somewhat of a major breakdown while eating a lot of pasta/binge watching my old favorite canceled tv show(story of my life).

So, these are my thoughts, as scattered and unorganized as possible.

Firstly, these days are necessary to gain perspective on life. For instance, I had to wake up the past two nights in panic from nightmares to remember that life doesn’t resolve around work. I mean, it does, but it doesn’t. Lately, it’s consumed me. I don’t have space for dreams where an entire baseball team of high schoolers has taken over my store and it’s my responsibility to get them out. Work isn’t meant to stress me out to the point of night terrors.

Secondly, it’s important to stop listening to yourself sometimes. I have a lot of stress and pressure that’s building(I won’t get into the list because those are details that only matter to me), and sometimes(or all the time), I’m internally screaming. Usually at work I can go in the back and kick some trash bags and give myself a little pep talk. It took hearing a random worship song come on our pop hits playlist to jolt me out of thinking I could handle everything. It’s dangerous, just listening to your brain on repeat day after day. I’ve started trying to talk to Jesus instead and it’s making all the difference.

Thirdly, don’t let yourself fall into a victim mentality. It’s easy to develop a sense of hurt when life is hard. The “I don’t deserve this” attitude plagues us. It’s hard to shake, but necessary. Acting like a spoiled baby because life is hard doesn’t get you anywhere, it only lowers everyone else’s respect for you. The world needs your positivity and gratefulness. If only for the fact that you have air to breathe, that’s reason enough to rejoice. Don’t let yourself slip into the idea that life is bad just because it’s hard.

Fourth, it’s really okay tobreak down sometimes! There’s this idea that you have to handle everything well all the time, which is a standard most often put on ourselves by ourselves, I think. Take a day where you’re just sad and recognize the toll frustrations are taking on you.

Fifth. If you’re young like me and people are telling you that everything will be okay in a few years, it may be true. But don’t let that make you think your frustrations aren’t legitimate because you’re young, or let it belittle you. Your frustrations are good enough to frustrate you today.

Sixth, it’s okay to talk about it with someone, and sometimes it’s necessary. I drive myself crazy in my head until I finally talk to someone about my bad day. My coworker found me sitting in the corner with a five pound container of goldfish yesterday and kept asking me what was wrong until I told him. “You tell me nothing’s wrong, and I keep asking until you tell me what’s up, it’s how this goes.” Eventually I summed it up as best as I could, which was “Life’s just getting me down, and I just want to sit and be sad and eat goldfish.”

Everyone feels down sometimes, or maybe even all the time. Jesus has removed the pressure to be perfect(by reminding us it’s actually impossible). Remember to lean on him for the strength you just don’t have. It’s really in to be human, to have feelings, and to feel deeply. Don’t worry if today is a bad day, there’s always the chance everything will be okay tomorrow or the next day.