Oh stress relief, Oh stress relief.

Di-ja miss me?

I’ll tell you one thing. I sure missed my blog.

Yesterday was the last day of the semester, for me, and I’ll tell you one thing: this last final? I walked in not even caring how I did. Is that bad? It was my psychology final, and while that class has been really interesting…man, I am glad it’s over. Cramming 16 weeks of information into 8 weeks?

I’ll never do that again. At least as a mother, I won’t.

**Oh stress relief, oh stress relief, how very much I love thee! (Yeah, I just went there.)**

Anyway, you’d be proud to know I knocked this semester out with an A in every one of my wellness courses…with a 96 or above. Sure that sounds like I’m tooting my own horn (toot, toot!), and sure it sounds like I’m an overachiever. In reality though, it’s taught a couple of things:

…I love where I’m going in life. This decision of mine to waltz full force into the wellness/fitness/health industry has been the best decision of my life.

…I busted out a nearly 4.0 GPA as a married mother-of-two, but couldn’t do it as a single undergraduate. This just goes to show you that maturity (and passion!) has everything to do with it! I’m damn proud!

Only one semester to go until I get my certificate!

***

I haven’t had much time to think about writing recently, for obvious reasons, but I have been doing some serious thinking. On top of that heavy duty thinking (and finals), I’ve been dealing with some major stress:

…my two year old broke her collarbone (she’s now healing beautifully!)

…we had two very expensive end zone dream seats tickets to the Redskins vs. Patriots game stolen from us (luckily, because those tix require an account manager…they canceled them and had new ones waiting for the hubby)

…some major head colds

…and some lovely, emotional things to go through regarding family.

Needless to say, guys, I’m not doing too well. My health, while not in critical danger, is just horrible (stomach problems, a head cold that’s come back three times in 2 weeks, fatigue, sleeplessness, weight gain…) and my goals were put on the back burner. Basically, guys? I’m a mess.

I have learned through this whole experience, though. My main issue in life is stress management. I am not good with stress – specifically, familial stress. When it comes to my family, I lose it. Pretty quickly. Things with my family settled down over the summer, but have gotten a little hard for me right now during the holidays. Actually, a lot harder than I care to admit most times.

*I’ve also witnessed some serious cruelty recently (more than once!), of which I don’t want to discuss. (It’s far too controversial for this blog.) I will say, however, that it has had a far greater impact on me than I ever thought it would, and it’s really made me question, evaluate, and determine my own morals, goals, and values. It has also taught me that I need to learn to ignore/let things go that I cannot, on my own, control.* (This in particular hasn’t made things easy on me, either.)

With all that said…I’ve come to realize that I need to shift my goals a little. I have no problems achieving goals (when I manage my time well)…but the one thing that does affect me is stress. It’ll stop my progress in its tracks.

Why? Because, plain and simple, I don’t know how to handle certain most kinds of stress.

Most times I try to ignore the problem. Most times I prefer not to confront the issue. The outcome? A very touchy, emotional me.

So I’m sure most of you don’t care to hear about my stress, haha, but I needed to bring it up, because my focus it changing a little here. The way I present my goals will change. The way I handle setbacks. The types of personal information I share. The new types of posts I’d like to do.

Get ready.