How to...de-stress!

Picture above: How to not de-stress!?

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "stress ball". Which, I don't know about you, but if I am feeling anxious and overly stressed, I don't exactly have five minutes to sit down and squish a stupid ball that most likely will not relieve any of my stress. In actuality, it may just set you back with time. It's kind of funny because they place this corny, smiling graphic on a pointless ball that may just end up making you more annoyed at the time. (We all know these stress balls are just cool to play with because of the gel inside, not to de-stress anybody.)

Anyway, here are my top 5 ways to de-stress in the moment of a crisis:

1. Take 5 seconds to breathe and write a 'to-do' list. This will help you organize your thoughts. This way, when one of your tasks is completed, you can cross it off the list! (When you cross everything off the list you will feel productive and relieved!) This extra time will also give you a minute to relax and keep your mind from racing.

2. Do your biggest task first. Sometimes if I have a crapload of stuff to do in one day, if I tackle my biggest job first, it almost lightens my load halfway. And also, if I don't have the opportunity to cross everything off the list, at least I know my greatest hassle is out of the way.

3. Grab a snack! I know, I know, sometimes you call your mom and she's like, "don't worry sweetie, just relax, you will get it all done, eventually!" And you're like, "MOM, I DON'T HAVE EVENTUALLY! I HAVE 3 HOURS!" And you think to yourself, I don't have time to eat, pee, breathe, sleep, live, cry, etc. Which first of all, especially for us girls, we definitely have time to cry. Breathing is a necessity. We are obviously still living even though we feel like dying. And for all of you that know me well, I definitely find time to eat. So you can too! Sometimes if you are extra hungry you become extra grumpy! I do anyway. So take 5 minutes to either pack an extra snack in the morning or grab one along the way to your interview or class, whatever.

4. Go for a run/exercise, whatever. Obviously this isn't going to be possible if you are in the middle of a long-day crisis of back to back duties, but if you are just stressed out about a huge paper, interview, application, etc., going for a run to trigger those endorphins will leave you feeling happy and relieved! So take 20-30 minutes to exercise and you may feel relieved. If you are more of an elliptcal-er or a biker, you can bring your book along and kill two birds with one stone! For those of you who aren't the exercising type, take this time to watch tv, write or play out one of your other hobbies that will keep you on track!

5. Stay positive. If you are running around like a maniac and telling everybody: "I still have to go to work, write my thesis paper, turn in 2 articles, eat dinner, go to the store, send that email to joe schmoe, fix my cover letter, blah blah blah, I'm gonna die of hunger, I will never get anything done, I hate my life. Chances are, with this attitude, you will never get anything done! Speaking negatively about what you have to accomplish, over and over again will just make everything worse! Stay positive, take a deep breath and cross the tasks off of your to-do list one by one!

That's all!

Random thought of the day: I want to be a columnist.