Stress, And Ways I Cope With It

@ecency-star released a Prompt, asking us to discuss ways in which we cope with stress or stressful situations. So, I thought I'd get into a few of the different ways I deal with it, and maybe talk about a few things that can stress me out.

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A Time I Was Recently Stressed
So, around August, I came into a bit of an issue, nothing too serious, but I was under a lot of pressure, and because of that, I ended up having a terrible time, filled with stress, and more so, burnout.

I signed on for a bunch of different projects, and each one required me to dedicate a lot of time and mental capacity to them. A lot of these projects required writing, two were creative writing projects, one was a technical document, and then on top of this, my own writing here on Hive, both creative fiction and non-fiction, as well as working, and then I also got asked about doing some music videos, which I signed up for too. All while rehearsing with two different bands who were both gigging and right around the time of dedicating myself to everything I was given the news that my partner was pregnant.

Within a few weeks of hearing all of this, and getting used to the big change coming to my life, I hit a brick wall in terms of the projects, as I was stretched way too thin and felt like I couldn't breathe without thinking about at least one of the projects I was working on.

I spoke to my partner, some family, and close friends separately about all that was going on, and nearly every person told me that I tried to do too much and took too much on, which was true.

All I could do was cut down on certain things and focus my efforts on one thing at a time. I stopped posting on Hive, stopped with my own projects, and passed on the music videos to some other people who I knew would do them justice - this gave me a chance to focus on the other projects and get them finished before I could move forward.

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Reaching Goals
One of the biggest stress reliefs I found in this time period was focusing my mind on one thing at a time, and seeing it through, before moving on to the next.

Working on too many things is detrimental to productivity, in the sense that you are in one mindset, let's say, a creative headspace while working on something that is complete fiction - living and breathing that idea to get yourself in the zone while tackling those types of stories. Then, you are changing your mindset entirely, in the space of an hour sometimes, to then start writing a technical document. By working on multiple things simultaneously, you are spreading yourself too thin mentally, and each of the projects suffer by not receiving your undivided attention.

I wouldn't say that I had writer's block, but the burnout got so bad that I would stare absent-mindedly at the screen, without being able to bring myself to write a single word; it was tough.

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Exercise
While in this period, exercise was the best thing I could have done. I started swimming, walking, cycling, and a bit of weight lifting. By putting myself in a routine, and giving myself manageable exercise goals to perform each day, I was able to reclaim some of the control over my daily life, as well as the boost that comes from being active.

Soon, I was able to tackle other things and cope a lot better with the projects I still had left to do.

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NaNoWriMo
Coming up to November, I heard about this month-long writing initiative that goes on every year and decided to join it - in the background - as I felt that I would be able to finish the novel I was working on around the time of my mental burnout.

During this month, I finished another project and at the same time, I finished writing the novel I was working on, and each of those things gave me a huge mental boost.

In December, I attempted posting on Hive every day of the month and failed, but hit it again in January and succeeded, and currently, I am 137 days into my daily posting.

It became a part of my daily ritual again, and keeping my streak going gives me a nice mental boost. They say that making your bed is a good habit to get yourself into, because every morning you achieve something, well that same rule applies to daily posting, and after each one, I feel a lot better than I do when I make my bed.

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Being Creative
I love being creative, whether writing fiction, making models with clay, or playing music and jamming, among some other endeavors like sketching - which I'm not great at, but enjoy regardless.

Sometimes, after doing something - that to me - is particularly good, I get a kind of rush of adrenaline and that alone keeps me coming back for more, and each time I go back to it, I get more practice which increases my chances of doing something particularly good.

I find that being creative in some way, can almost wash away stress, or annoyances sometimes, but I don't like to use creativity as 'therapy' I just enjoy doing it, and I like the small mental boosts and stimulations, that come from actively spending time on a hobby.

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One Final Thing
Music has always been a go-to for me, usually, under any circumstance, whether stress, joy, sadness, anger, whatever the mental state or emotion, I tend to turn to a pair of headphones and sit back, or go for a walk and let myself get absorbed. I've often joked about it, saying that I can sometimes go into a trance when I daydream, and that is kind of true, if not a little over-exaggerated.

A pair of headphones and an hour away from everyone and everything is one of the best remedies for just about any problem. I have never really meditated, so I'd say listening to music has been the closest to it I've ever gotten.

While listening to music, I have come up with a lot of ideas for the stories I write here on Hive too, because I'm a very visual thinker, so that's another benefit that derives from a little bit of isolation.