Family Stress Theories

This week made me think a lot about stress and the importance of managing it well. I have also learned that there are different forms of stress and how it needs to be handled. I believe that stress often sends people down a not so pretty path if left untended.

I always assumed that stress was always a bad thing, but I think it can help us grow and improve on our own personal lives. I have seen this in my own life where at the time, I didn’t see the stress as a blessing, but as I look back now, I see it as a way that I improved my own life and the stress made me a stronger person. My first semester of college was in January 2013, and I was miserable. It was my first time ever really being away from home and I was homesick. Especially because home was over 2,000 miles away! I can’t even remember how many times I would call my parents up crying begging them to let me come home! They would have let me too. But one thing about myself is my extraordinary determination to accomplish hard things. That first semester was my hardest because I can’t remember a day that entire semester that I didn’t have a panic attack about being homesick. But I kept pushing through and I made it, and I was happy that I decided to stay because that semester, although at the time was extremely stressful and there was no way I can see anything good coming from it, it made me stronger. It taught me how to care for myself and how to me independent. So all I am trying to say is that I am grateful that I had that stressful time in my life. When I look back, I am happy that I went through it because I see where I was and where I am now and I am a completely different person.

I think the major thing that helps me most now when I am stressed or anxious is just breathing and thinking positively. I often do this while taking a walk. Or I even just take a nap. All those things tend to help, and I start to come back to reality and things don’t bother me as much as they did before. I start to think rationally and most of the time what I originally thought and was anxious about really wasn’t that big of a deal. I have noticed that when I am stressed, it tends to put a stressor on the relationships that I hold dearly to me and it often gets hard for us to be close. So, I try hard to be positive and think happy thoughts and avoid jumping to conclusions because that tends to be the reason people I love get frustrated with me. That helps a lot. It’s amazing what a simple attitude change can do to change the way you go about life!

Learning more about coping with stress has made me determined to make changes in my own life. It has made me appreciate life as it is handed to me and not take anything for granted. I believe by having this simple attitude adjustment I can avoid a lot of hardships that could come my way.