Take a Chill---- the App

This last week I was on vacation with my cousin, and as with any two close friends do, we got to talking about everything thats going on in our lives right now; how stressful the thought of  going back to school is, her new move, boy troubles, the usual. And after a while, I remembered what I had blogged about last week, and was curious to know what she does to de-stress. She told me she used an app called "Take a Chill",  and out of curiosity (again), I had to buy it.  Its been about a week since then, but I just started to fool around with it a bit, and so far it seems pretty awesome. It has four parts to it, a "Stop/ Take a moment", which  is my favorite part because  I'm the kind of person who tends to get so caught up in my stress, and the app gave me some visuals and gestures that worked to calm me down. The other feature that I really like is the "Daily Activity", which is basically exactly what it says it is. For example, today's "to do" was appreciation. So, I had to say everything I appreciated about myself and my life, which was great because some times it's so easy to forget what you love and just get so lost in the in the stuff you hate. Its also has a great "Prep" or "Center Yourself"feature that allows you to almost meditate to release stress. The last feature the app has is a collection of songs, but unfortunately, I have not tried them yet. So, i'll have to save that for another time. Bottom line, while I like to do what I previously blogged about to de-stress, that doesn't everyone does. Therefore, the app provides a nice alternative method.

Relaxation Statioin

 I say there are two kinds of stress. The first stress is the kind of stress you get from day to day things,  like a hectic schedule (like me), lots of homework, long work hours, etc.  The second stress is the kind of stress you get from more traumatic events, like a parents divorce, friends problems, finical problems, or anything else along those lines. This stress tends to be the most painful, so i'll address how I cope with that first. For this kind of stress I have three steps that I like to follow.Step 1: Talk to someone! I cannot stress this enough. Just tell someone whats going on (it can even be a pet or stuffed animal), and jus have them listen. Right now you don't need to solve the problem, you just need to vent and clear your head a little, and you can even tell them that before. Step 2: Write down your problems ( sometimes just seeing them helps) and try to write down some ways you could help (For example, at the time in my life when I wasn't allowed to visit my sister and I missed her, I decided to  keep a scrapbook of things going on in my life for her so that the next time I saw her I'd be able to fill her in, but at the same time keep her in mind while I was doing this). Step 3: If neither of those thing work just give it some time and start the process over. You might just needs some distance to see the solution. Now for the day to day stress I have MANY things I like to do to calm myself down, so i'll just list the top five. 1. Take a bath with bubbles, candles, and book. 2. Go get some exercise, let the emotions out that way. 3. Cry, and if you can't watch a sad movie and let it out that way. 4. Paint your nails and listen to music. 4. Zone out in front of the T.V. 5. If none of these work, just lay down and close your eyes. Then envision a big box, and then watch all your problems get pulled into that box. And once that last one gets in there, imagine that you lock the box and throw it so far away that your problems cannot came back.  So, theres my advice, hope some of it works for you!!

Labeled for Life

The first issue I want to talk about are stereotypes, something that has given me a lot of stress in my high school career. In my first two years of high school I was a cheerleader, and therefore most of my friends were too. So people often thought that I, like them, was the “stereotypical cheerleader” i.e. either a mean, self-centered girl obsessed with her looks and always dated the "jocks" or a perfect, innocent Miss America pageant girl. But in reality, I was neither of those things.  I was the cheerleader who was rather shy, always tried hard in school, liked to be a bookworm, and was even part of a club devoted to help prevent bullying. Yet, even people who knew this, don’t wish to see me this way. What I learned was that once you do ONE thing to fit your stereotype and your labeled for life. But either way people labeled me it hurt. If I a was the mean, self-centered cheerleader, all because I liked to dress up for school, people also label me as unapproachable and, to be honest, a bitch.  And, if i was the perfect, innocent cheerleader because I liked to get good grades, people would then hold me to this unattainable standard. While both are detrimental in their own ways, it was the second one that really got to me. I was so often label this, even by my parents, that I started to believe it. Which, caused me a LOT of pain because "perfection" is so unattainable. Anyway, i'll keep this short and sweet. The point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't use stereotypes against someone, because no matter if you think their good or bad, their still harmful. So as the saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover."

Intro.

I woke up this morning trying to find the perfect way to start off this blog. But instead I decided that what was more important was that I get down what I need to say. So here it goes. Growing up I didn't always have the easiest time, contrary to what people often thought. I was the girl who was in cheerleading since she was little and whose mom always dressed her in the cutest clothes. But, what most people didn't know about me was that underneath that I was very upset. At the time, my parents had recently went through a divorce and I was struggling with my new stepmom. While I prefer not to get into the exact details of what occurred, it was severe enough to make my mom put me into counseling.  And I'm very thankful she did.  I have been in counseling since I was 6 and since about 12 off and on.  Counseling was able to not only help me battle the issues that I faced as a child, but also gave me the persecutive I have now; it taught me to give more empathy to others, to make time for myself, and that sometime the best solution for any situation is to talk it out. And essentially, that is why I made this blog as a place to talk about common high school stresses and ways to help ease them. So stayed tuned, I have more to say, and I hope you'll want to read it.