Dear inner self, it's me again. I know you are reading this either in bed or in bed. You woke up this morning from a terrible night's sleep because you couldn't stop worrying about everything going on in your life and waking up at every hour feeling wide awake. You are probably thinking of all of the things you will need to do today and this week so you are not stressing out, even though you already know that regardless of what you do, you will be completely stressed out. You get up and get ready for a long and busy day when all you want to do is lay back in bed just a little longer and scroll through social media but you manage to push yourself to get the day started.

Dear Inner Self, it's me again. Stop stressing out.

Dealing with the constant struggle of feeling like there is always 100+ lbs of weight on your shoulder's is difficult to live through everyday. You always feel like you're behind everyone else or you're not going to succeed in life, so then you panic and get anxious, very anxious. You feel like you're not good enough, whether its about not feeling good enough for a work position, or a significant other, or even by any day to day task, so then it tears you down and leads to you experiencing anxiety. When you feel as if you are not the best you can be or things aren't going as planned, you tend to shut down or have an anxiety attack where you cry for no reason and stress yourself out to the point where you have no motivation to change the things you are stressed about. You might be wondering where I am getting at here, which is why I will tell you. Inner self, don't let anxiety and stress control your life because it will tear you apart mentally and emotionally. It's normal to stress out, but it's smart to know how to control it.

Dear Inner Self, it's me again. Stop stressing out.

The number of times you have been told "you need to stop stressing" or your all-time favorite, "You have got to relax Sophia" is endless, and every time you would hear your friends or family say those words to you, you would lash back with just a simple "I know" when in reality, you don't know. You don't know how to stop stressing out. The word "relax" is almost a foreign word to you because you feel like it is impossible to do if you deal with constant anxiety and stress.

So here we are, at the end of this letter I am writing to you, Inner Self, to tell you to relax (just kidding), but to find ways to ease your stress and take one step at a time, literally. Everything will be okay in the end even though you think otherwise. All in all, just breathe. Count to ten. Go on a jog. Watch your favorite television show. Do something to put your mind at ease and find ways to motivate yourself to get out of bed every morning and get that day started.

Sincerely,

Sophia Marren