Let's be honest about something: Whether you are a student or a working adult, having responsibilities is stressful. Granted, the types of stress or the way that stress is felt is different for everyone, but we all go through it.
The last few months, have honestly been a little bit of a dead sprint in terms of "adulting." It gets difficult trying to maintain a job at a Fortune 500 company, being a homeowner, playing recreational sports, training for a half marathon, involvement in the church, being a good friend/son/small group leader/brother/etc. and then adding in being an EIC for Odyssey.
Life began to spin out of control and I was getting dizzy.
Typically, I deal with my stress in one of three ways:
1. I run/workout until my brain and body are too tired to think about the stress
2. I change my focus and work on something aside from what's stressing me out.
3. I binge watch Netflix until I don't even know what time it is or when it got dark outside
If I'm being completely transparent, generally speaking, the only one of those methods that truly works in relieving my stress is number 1. The other two options really just add to the stress. In fact, most of my hobbies can often induce additional stress and not promote relaxation in the way in which they are intended too. If you have ever played golf, you'll understand what I mean by that.
Don't get me wrong, I still love my hobbies, I love my friends and family, and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. At the same time, in the moment, I usually don't even realize how badly I need to de-stress. I'm too busy doing other things to think about that.
All of that changed on Sunday afternoon.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to head down to one of our state parks and spend the day with a good friend of mine. We strapped on our Chacos, packed up our ENO hammocks (mine still had the tags on it, of course) and grabbed a park map with one goal in mind: to relax and enjoy nature.
It was incredible how much lighter I felt after I got back home that night. The stress had melted away, which isn't surprising given the temperature outside during that five mile hike. We spent time talking about any and every topic that came to mind, laying around in our hammocks, laughing at ourselves and each other and just living life in a simple but beautiful way.
What yesterday taught me is sometimes you have to literally just shut things off. Throw the phone in a backpack (save using it for a picture or emergency situation), no headphones or electronics. Just me, an amazing friend and the great outdoors. I walked into work on this Monday, feeling like I had just come back from a week long vacation, and all it took was a 40 minute drive and fiv mile hike to rejuvenate myself.
