STRESSED TO THE MAX!!!

Welcome!!

I do not handle stress well. I wear it, it becomes me, I am it and it is me! I gain weight, my face hates me, I sleep when I am not supposed to and am wide awake when I supposed to be sleep. I obsessively make list to undo whatever is stressing me, I fixate on things I can control and ignore the rest of the world. Stress is not my friend. This year has been stress inducing and at some point I had had enough. I started making drastic changes to improve my mood. 

* I quit my job
* I started taking Vitamin D supplements 
* I got an 8 week old puppy
* I got serious about my budget and becoming debt free

And then I started to notice a change in my behavior and my mood. 

All of these changes built on one another. Before I quit my job I saw a dermatologist and started taking vitamin D because my skin was THROUGH! The vitamin D I believe motivated me to leave the house and not come home and crash. See attached link for symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency. (click here!) Check out my Instagram to see how my skin as improved over the last few months. Follow me!

I quit my job without another job lined up (rarely do this) because I was mental being drained and abused. I mean I was mentally warn out from the demands of my clients and the lack of compassion or understanding from my directors. I am also in grad school right now so homework was the least of my worries. It put a physical toll on me as well. I was able to quit my job because among the many list I created there was one that was dedicated to my budget through the end of the year. I saved up enough money to be unemployed for a few months and have my rent paid in full until December of 2018. So when I quit, I went home and slept with my baby. The following weeks were spent napping with my puppy and causally putting in applications. 

During this unfamiliar time of unemployment and what I felt was PTSD I sought out a therapist, I spoke with family often and I learned to trust the Lord to be a provider when there was nothing coming in to my account. The therapist highlighted why my job stressed me out and how secondary trauma is a real thing. My family constantly reassured me that quitting was necessary ( i don't quit jobs y'all.. at all) and that I would be okay. And the Lord in his omnipresent self showed me my past where he has always taken care of me and a future where money wasn't a concern of mine. Exactly two months later I am employed making more than I was with so much free time and a vision for my future. 

Opportunities are all around us and stress has the ability ( if you let it) to blind you from your potential. IF you let stress be the orator of your future it will present to you all the lies that the enemy has cooked up. But if you take a moment even in your frustration to say "God what do yo want from me!" (like I did) He will answer, your job is just to obey. Do it afraid. Do it nervous. But know this the creator of the heavens and earth stitched you together, he makes sure that the day and the night stay constant, he makes sure that your brain continues to tell your lungs to breathe, he cares for you, he grieves with you and he wants nothing more than for you to be successful. Your success is not difficult to God. Your future is not still being created or thought of, it is finished! Your job is just to obey and run towards the things that he has called you to. 

Challenge for the month: I challenge you today to take your stress to the Lord. Take your frustrations and throw them at his feet and listen to what he says the solution is.