Acceptance

This school year has been… one of a kind, to say the very least. My classes have been infuriatingly difficult, I’ve slowly been losing sleep day by day, and I always end up forgetting everything remotely related to a unit within a few minutes even after hours of study. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel way too run down than I should, and it’s the fifth week of school. FIFTH! 

This is all wrong. All this stress and tense build-up will never go away if you keep adding to your self-expectations. Yes, it’s good to set goals for yourself and work toward them every day as much as you can, but it’s no longer healthy if you don’t allow yourself to really see if this is getting you anywhere. If it isn’t helpful, then what’s the point in doing it?

Welcome back! I’ve been itching to write about this for a while. In my previous blog entries, I’ve mentioned stress, procrastination, and tension a lot and how it just gets worse as you get older. But I forgot to mention one of the most important things about growing up: it doesn’t just mean more responsibilities, it also implies composure and acceptance. Now, this isn’t like sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the ground with your hands rested on your knees and saying Om. Having an immense sense of composure and rationality when handling a situation is something that doesn’t just come through yoga; especially if you’re like me and care way too much about everything. 

It’s hard to let go when you’ve spent your entire life being on top of things. I mean, imagine if you got all A’s on everything, and suddenly, you get your first B out of nowhere. Getting an eighty on an assignment isn’t bad at all, but when you have a mindset that you have to get an excelling grade on every small assignment, one “bad” grade can gut you. The natural reaction for something like that is to double down and study, study, study. That kind of determination is fine, healthy even,  until it gets a little too much.

Over years of trial and error, I came to realize something. If you want to give your best every time, the only way to do that without burning yourself out is by asking for help and breathing. I know it’s so simple, but you would be surprised by how many people just forget to breathe. Think of it this way: if you want to chop down a tree with an ax and you hit it hard every time, the ax will dull quicker, which means that you should take the time to sharpen it more often. If you don’t sharpen your skills and give yourself space to grow, hours of studying and hundreds of attempts at study methods will get yourself nowhere.

I guess the hardest part of the whole “staying calm through stressful situations” is actually knowing that you need help. For one thing, asking for help isn’t a bad thing and it certainly isn’t something you should be ashamed of. But actually going up to someone and asking a question isn’t the hard part; it’s accepting that you need help and that you might not be the best in this situation. I mean I can not stress enough how long it took me to actually come to peace with myself that I am not a prodigy at anything and everything. Years and years of expectations and stress clogged up the part of my brain that allows me to be ok with my flaws. 

Mind you, no one just woke up one day and had a heart full of confidence. I’m still not there either! But I think that it’s important to know one thing:

You. Are. Not. Perfect.

You are not a robot. 

You are human, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If the people around you disagree, then they haven’t had a chance to tell themselves otherwise (which really needs to be worked on ASAP).

People aren’t genetically fit to go about their lives without making a single mistake. It just isn’t possible! So, the point is to accept this fact. Go out there, and have some fun! Make mistakes and learn from them (good mistakes, not bad ones… you know what I mean)!

What Do You Think?

This was a good entry. What’s ironic is that I was stressing myself out while writing this (some habits die hard). Now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, time to lighten things up!

• How do you spell “candy” with just two letters?

ʎ puɐ ɔ

• What can you break without touching?

ǝsᴉɯoɹd ∀

• Paul’s height is six feet, he’s an assistant at a butcher’s shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh

ʇɐǝW