Aloha! I’m currently sitting on the beach, watching the sun come up and glisten upon the calm waves of the North Shore of O’ahu. The Steven Sharp Nelson pandora station is playing (#SundayMusic), and I’m still enjoying the benefits of my one-month Pandora One free trial, so my listening has been entirely ad-free. I read my scriptures for about 30 minutes and now I’m content to just watch the waves and write this blog. Life is pleasant. Life is good. I live in Hawaii, so I don’t have a care in the world.
Not.
That whole paragraph was a lie. I am definitely not on the beach this morning. I’m hastily trying to write this to make sure Lucy and Aileen aren’t mad at me for missing another week. I went to bed late last night, trying to finish some assignments and study for an upcoming exam. This morning I need to finish preparing a Relief Society lesson and then get to Ward Council as fast as I can. Then there’s a stake leadership training after church. November visiting teaching still needs to happen, so we’ll see if we can make time for that today or later this week. Then I’m going to meet with a member of the stake presidency to talk about my new stake calling, and then we have a fireside. #DayofRest I’ll probably start studying again at midnight.
Sound familiar? Just writing that stressed me out. Relaxing on the beach would be ideal, and I do indeed live about 800 yards from Temple Beach, but I just don’t have time for such activities.
False. Elder Bednar: “We all have the same amount of time. It just depends on how we choose to use it.”
My point in all this is to argue that the way we spend each hour of each day is completely up to us. It was my choice to take 21 credits this semester, and my choice to have two jobs. It was my choice to procrastinate the RS lesson and those assignments and not prioritize yesterday.
Given, some have heavier workloads than others. Some have more “stuff” to do. But we are all in charge of our lives, and we control our daily reactions. I have decided that whether or not we are stressed is our choice. Stress is a choice. Stress is a lifestyle. I learned on the mission that we need to have certain amounts of stress in order to be effective. There’s good stress and bad stress. It comes down to whether or not we have enough resources to combat the stress.
Quick list of resources:
1. Sleep
2. Healthy food
3. Friends/ family
4. Positive self-talk
5. Goal-setting and planning
There it is. Stress will be there, but our reaction is the choice. I am trying to choose to be positively motivated by the stressors in my life, which are actually incredibly minor, and just keep swimming. Eustress is good stress, by the way.
Excellent Lind. Hang in there! And those hashtags…bahaha you’re right, we have set a new standard. #nohashtagsnomeaning #eustressrocksmysocks