Stress

 I haven't been blogging as much as I should, as I started to struggle with the stress of working 31 hours a week, doing this degree, finishing my teaching qualification, going to class, keeping up my fitness, organising modeling shoots among numerous job applications and filming of self tapes. Now this isn't an excuse for falling behind but I have now a new mindset that I will not be drowned by the tidal wave of stress and panic that does come with juggling possibly too many things for me to handle at this time. Instead I will practice more self care and listen to my body and what it needs.

This raised the questions:

How do we deal with stress? and what is it's impacts on our body? 

stress is defined as: 

"a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances"- Oxford dictionary

From my experience when I am under stress for any period of time my body becomes fatigued, my eating patterns are disrupted, and my mental health doesn't do too well. But on the other hand sometimes I am more focused and efficient with my work and I weirdly do like the feeling of having a lot, sometimes too much, to do. Then after the stressful period, be it a week or a few months, I seemingly forget how stressed I felt and just feel the happiness that I have achieved my goals and made it through.

I feel like stress can also stem from under confidence in our own abilities and not organising our life to accommodate your body's needs along with reaching targets. In reflection social media can be detrimental to this reorganisation. For two reasons really:

1. Feeling productive. One of my fears is not being productive, which can really benefit me but also hinder my progress at the same time. On one hand it motivates me to never fail exams and do my work on time, or early. In reflection though, I feel like this is the root cause for most of my stress ( I would be interested if anyone feels the same). Many of us are selective what we post on social media, and most users only post when they are being productive. We just need to remind ourselves that social media is only a fraction of people's lives- we don't know the whole story. 

2. I can get distracted on my phone which leads to procrastination which throws off my train of thought. The algorithms in social media are built so that you spend as much time on the application as possible, this helps the organisation create connections, record data and ultimately make money.

Being a freelance dancer, stress will always be a part of our lives, as with most professions. Not knowing when the next contract will come, managing our time efficiently, always putting yourself out there with the fear of rejection are all factors- but the real question is how do we deal with it? Why do we get stressed/ what are the contributing factors? Are there enough support systems, especially in colleges, to prepare you for being your own accountant, manager, promoter secretary? What are the ways that we can re-train ourselves to combat this stress? How do we know when its too much stress to put someone under?

I am also interested in researching the biological impacts stress has too, how the response is caused by the body, the symptoms and how these factors can ricochet out to other parts of people lives effecting them in a positivley or negetively. I also want to reflect and propose if there should be any changes made to accommodate this.

references

https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=E211GB0G0&p=stress+definition