If there’s one thing I can always write about, it’s stress: having too much of it, not feeling any of it at all, trying to manage it, and understanding how it affects me. Last week I felt like I was in a pressure cooker but I couldn’t understand why. Looking back now I feel like it was likely due to my course load and preparing for a weekend away, as well as low self-esteem. I handled those stressful moments by sleeping in almost every morning that I could, trying to maximize my dreams in order to delay the onslaught of to-do lists. In addition to oversleeping I also noticed a decline in my water intake.

Waking up so late in the day made me feel guilty and anxious to not waste any of my remaining time, so I would usually jump straight to a cup of coffee or tea to help me get going. I struggled to meet my eight glasses a day because I didn’t feel like wasting time drinking water, but the effects seemed to add up each day. On the days where I went to the gym I pushed myself a little harder than I had been in the last month, determined to do more and work through my low self-esteem. The lack of water in my system made it difficult for me to keep going after a while.

It became a cycle of curing my anxiety by oversleeping and poor nutrition, when really all of these things created even more stress. Of course not all of my coping mechanisms were as detrimental to my stress management, but it’s important for me to realize that just because I’m feeling swamped by X, Y, or Z doesn’t mean I get a free pass on taking care of myself. I owe it to myself to wake up early and start my day off on the right foot, not rolling around in bed worrying about all of the things I have to do. The next time I’m feeling overwhelmed I hope I decide to rise above it and conquer the day.