Which I guess brings me to my topic today...
How Do You Deal with Stress?
It's hard really, there are so many different kinds of stress. With the looming idea that I might be out of the job I am really just trying to take things one day at a time at my company for however long I have. I'm also trying to find a new job, which honestly I was already doing since late last year.
I feel like as a kid, no one ever told me how hard it was to actually find a job! They told me to go to school, get a degree, "jobs" like that! What they didn't tell me was that jobs also like to see X amount of years of experience. Because one can totally do all that at once!
But that's getting off topic, I want to talk about dealing with stress. In light of my situation, I guess I just know there are things I can do, like go back on unemployment. I know that's why it's there, but I still hate going through that whole process. I did it three years ago when I lost my job the first time.
Keeping those things in mind helps to alleviate some of my stress. Other times I like to bake! Yeah...probably not terribly healthy to do because when I am stressed out my go to is chocolate chip cookies! Mostly for the dough too! Lol!
I might watch a movie or TV show that I enjoy that can make me laugh. I might read if there's nothing else going on. My first round of unemployment had me lying in bed pretty much every day reading...granted I was applying for jobs like crazy online. Each week I probably applied for 15-20 jobs and I think I was supposed to apply for at least 3-5. Like I wouldn't apply for more anyway! Lol!
Lately I have been trying to work on my novel again. It's mostly written, but I find myself going back and wanting to change little things. Tiny things that I wrote out god knows how long ago and I just don't care for them now so I am changing them to make them seem more real. Now I just have one or two things I was debating about and then I was going to try my hand at submitting to smaller publishers or indie ones. I struggled for a few years with trying to query agents, but since my genre isn't as "hot" anymore, perhaps now would be a better time to try again. It's always tough though, I feel like when my genre is pumping is a good time, but then I worry the agents won't see how my book stands out and then if my genre is not hot they probably won't want it because it's not selling currently. Seriously the worse conundrum! Lol! Hence why I might try with the few small publishers I noted accepting submissions.
So in the long run, my dealing with stress amounts to baking, reading, writing--if I am really, really in the mood, and watching TV and movies. What are you coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with stress?
