Stressed Out

Everyone knows stress is bad for you. It causes tension, indigestion, high blood pressure, all sorts of maladies. It's even been blamed for heart disease and migraines. That said, I got a bit of a wakeup call as to how stressed I've been because it lowered my immune system... and I got sick.

I get sick less often than I used to. I had mono a couple years ago which was the equivalent of having a perpetual cold for about a year and a half. Fortunately I was an adult suffering from it, since when it hits adolescents it causes such a level of fatigue as to make normal daily activities impossible. (One poor friend of mine described it as "get up, walk down stairs to use bathroom, collapse on couch because upstairs was too hard.")

But these days I know I've run myself down, despite my attempts to live healthier. I don't eat as well as I ought, opting for easy instead of nutritious. The balance of my meals is off, high in carbs and sugar instead of vegetables and fruit. I haven't been hydrating myself properly and though I've been getting to the gym more often, it's neither regular or terribly long. But aside from all that, I stress out a lot about my job and my externship and all the eight million things that all need to be done. I have a house to keep up and animals to care for, a boyfriend to spend time with... all of which I like doing, but cannot be neglected. There is no day off from feeding the cat, for example. Laundry is a perpetual beast, dust is forever settling and floors constantly getting dirty. Paperwork needs filing, bills need paying, groceries purchasing and putting away. All this surrounding the day job and trying to have a moment to breathe in between... I start feeling guilty for taking time to myself to relax and unwind.

But, as a few good friends pointed out, play time reduces stress, which keeps me more functional. Therefore, playtime IS necessary as well. And as boyfriend keeps reminding me, I can't take care of everything else if I don't take care of myself. So now that I'm recovering from a somewhat enforced long weekend (and by "enforced" I mean "body said no to going to work"), I'm back to drinking water and breathing deeply and stretching and so on. As with everything else, it takes effort and will.

So if you see me doing something I shouldn't encourage - don't scold (that'll set off my Capricornian stubbornness) - me to do something else. I'll try not to be a snit about listening to you.