Feed Yourself

Hi friend,

Lately I’ve been thinking about ways to preserve myself. I want my life to be one of ease and I realized some of that has to do with me unnecessarily trying to manage people. I find myself wondering how I got into this cycle.

Maybe it’s my profession.

Maybe it’s spending a lot of years as the oldest sibling.

Maybe it was being raised in a religious cult.

But, I realized a lot my stress comes from this out of pocket idea that other people need me to look out for them. Yes, we all need people but we need ourselves more. Stress affects the body in the most disrespectful ways. The feeling of impending doom disrupting my quality of sleep and caused my blood pressure to rise. If you’re kind of vain, like me, the stress could also give you premature wrinkles, make you lose your hair and inflate your waist line. I’m choosing not to see if that’s true for me right now.

I remember my friends and family making fun of me for stressing. Saying things like “why are you always so stressed out. You’re like an old woman.” Or “you need to learn how to let God handle it”. Or “try not to let the world have such an affect on you.” As if I woke up every morning and decided to choose to fight with my own body.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament, here’s what is helping me.

Write it out

I often make thought pages through my notes app or physically write things down. I found that this help me sort through the many open mental tabs. It helps me to let go. And all the years of when I found it difficult to write I realize now that my stress levels were through the roof. I used to write when I was bored or tired or happy or in distress. I guess getting back to writing is important to my health - mentally and physically.

I want to take this time to encourage you to find your art again. When we were children all loved to do something, and now may be the time that you make room in your life for what feeds you. Maybe like me you’ll find you have no room for anything else. And maybe that’s okay.