Dealing with the World

I have never in my life thought the phrase "dumpster fire" more.  Possibly because my entire state smells like a fire. 

It's extremely hard to be anything in hard times, but I feel it might be even harder to be a teacher.  We are expected to model appropriate reactions and behavior when honestly, all I feel like doing today is curling up in a ball and crying myself to sleep.  Putting it mildly, I didn't sleep well last night.  On top of normal October stress, I have life stress and world stress and health stress.  It's a never ending stress cycle.  Which is why I'm writing this, to help me help you help me cope with life stress.

1.  It's all about attitude.
Two of my coworkers were talking about the state of the world and it was spiraling down to the point where I kept thinking "Why get out of bed in the morning?"  Another coworker brought up this optimistic view of how this time in history is meant to act like acne: show us the disease so we can deal with it.  And that attitude blew my mind, and kind of became my mantra.  It's easy to feel down, it's hard to force yourself to feel up, so I'm trying to shift my attitude as much as I can.  I do have a breaking point though.

2.  Give yourself a break. 
I don't mean like a rest.  I spent part of this morning crying just because I couldn't deal.  And then I felt better.  Sometimes, I just need to let it out.  A lot.  And by myself. 

3.  Keep doing things you love.
Yesterday, I sat on my couch in a ball for about ten minutes.  While letting it out can often make me feel better, I think doing something else that I really enjoy might be an even better use of my time than wallowing in self pity.  This is hard to do, as it is very easy for me to wallow.  I'm an excellent wallower.  Honestly, writing this has been a form of doing something I like to get over feeling the blues.

Anyway, just jotting down some feelings.  Thanks for listening.