Coping with Life

Coping with stress, disappointment, and life's letdowns has been something I've been dealing with a lot lately.   Being down here in Immokalee, in a small town in the middle of nowhere, away from my family and friends and everything that brings me comfort, I've had to do a lot of self-examination on the best ways to deal with hardship. I am realizing how thankful I am that I've been able to choose some healthy methods of dealing with and working through my problems, rather them avoiding them or pushing them off with temporary fixes. I am in no way, shape or form an expert on the topic of dealing with problems, but I would like to share some ideas that helped ME immensely dealing with life's crap.

-Take a walk
-Read a self-help book (Let's face it...people DO devote their lives to studying this kinda stuff, they can be useful. Don't be to proud.)
-Pray
-Cry (Don't keep it in. It's okay to feel sad or disappointed. Let it out.)
-Talk to a friend
-Blog (Or read your fun friend's blog ;) 
-Journal
-Workout
-Listen to music (or, if you're like me, turn it up real loud and SING LIKE NO ONE IS LISTENING)
-Drink some tea (May I suggest Tension Tamer?)
-Dance! (I REALLY recommend this one!)

Or, if all else fails..

Face your problems, deal with them, work through them. Feel the emotions and let that whole process take its course. It drives me nuts when people turn to alcohol, drugs or other temporary highs to "escape" their problems. I know each person has their own way of coping, but these things do not solve a darn thing. Maybe for a night. But the next day you will wake up and be smacked in the face with the same problems. You are not coping, you are not dealing with them, you are avoiding them. You are pushing them aside, and forgetting about them for the moment, not working towards solving them. Look deep inside yourself and find that space where you can say "I have what it takes, right now, to get through this obstacle. This is only temporary. Good will come from this. The best is yet to come".

Be blessed, good people. :)