I grew up always being told “enjoy being a kid”, and by the time I grew up, the new saying was “adulting sucks”. However, I was that kid who constantly wished they were grown up, and even now as an adult, I would never go back to being a child. But – I do widely acknowledge the amount of chaos adulthood has, and with that chaos is this *cue sarcasm* AMAZING thing called STRESS. In my mind, I had admired adulthood for so long as a child that no matter what, I will always love being an adult. I can go into depth on this… over coffee sometime in the future. However, for the sake of this blog, I will be frank when I speak about the amount of stress that we must deal with now.
The American Psychological Association (2022) wrote an article about how stress is at such an all-time high that people agree that simple day-to-day tasks are simply adding to their pre-existing stress. More than a quarter of Americans are “so stressed they cannot function” (APA, 2022, para. 1). I mean, everyone is well-aware of what is currently taking place throughout the climates of all spheres, such as environmental, political, social, racial, etc. Now, add in the fact that we have current event (news) access so readily available at our fingertips 24/7. Our brains are being conditioned, inadvertently, to watch for new headlines – although, there are ways we can manage this! The point is that the issues going on all around us are HUGELY important issues. These are issues that impact our lives, especially our day-to-day lives. People genuinely feel like their lives do not matter in the eyes of the government, and we can see that rings true for many different, but “minority” demographics. So, yes, the amount of stress these days hits differently – and due to technology – it hits harder and faster than ever.
That is why we must prioritize self-care. Talk to a therapist, take an extra day off of work, buy yourself something special, meditate longer, do an extra yoga session – do something to benefit you first. Otherwise, the stress just keeps building. Take proactive steps to minimize stress by utilizing the Do Not Disturb functions on your devices. Set a period throughout the day to turn off all notifications to focus and be present in the moment. Some phones allow you to personalize your DND to allow specific people to contact you. So, if you’re worried about one specific person and you need to have contact for emergencies, then you can allow that call or text to come through. The point isn’t deletion, but minimalization. We’re minimizing our stress to a more manageable level.
What do you do to minimize stress?
American Psychological Association. (2022, October 19). More than a quarter of U. S. Adults say they’re so stressed they can’t function [Press release]. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2022/10/multiple-stressors-no-function
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