5 Simple Ways to Unwind After a Stressful Day

Stressful days are not unknown, nor are they uncommon, especially to young adults struggling to get to where they want to be in life.  The past few weeks have been particularly stressful for me due to wedding planning as well as a full workload at my day job.  However, I try not to let my stresses get the best of me.  Here are some of my favorite ways to unwind after a stressful day:

1. Sit out on your porch and get fresh air.  Or, if you don’t have a porch, sit under a tree or on a bench or wherever is most comfortable for you.  There’s something about sitting outside and breathing the fresh air that does wonders for me.  Listening to the birds chirp and the nature around tends to calm all of my worries/stresses.  Ironically, as I write this I’m currently sitting outside on my apartment balcony and I can easily tell you I’m feeling much better than I was earlier today.
2. Read a book.  I know not all of my followers probably read, but sometimes it’s just nice to get away from your life and live someone else’s.  By reading, I escape into another world and focus solely on those characters rather than what’s happening in my life.  I disregard all of my previous stresses of the day and instead attempt to solve the puzzle in the protagonist’s life.
3. Watch TV and drink wine.  If you’re not really into books that much, pick a new show on Netflix or find something on cable to watch, and kick your feet up and relax.  I normally watch one or two hours of TV per day and during that time I try not to work on anything else or even think about anything that’s left on my to-do list.  I normally always pair watching TV with a glass of wine because what’s the harm in that?  Wine helps me to relax, and it makes me tired so I fall asleep easier, which a better night’s sleep would alleviate the stress of being tired the next day.
4. Take a nap.  There is very little that I feel that sleeping doesn’t cure.  Today, for instance, I was so exhausted after my stressful work day that I didn’t feel like exercising or watching TV or cleaning or even writing a blog.  So I took a short 15 minute nap after I got home and I woke up more energized and less stressed.  I was able to finish my workout and now I’m sitting here typing this list up.
5. Exercise.  Last but not least, I love to exercise to alleviate stress.  I know this isn’t for everyone, but exercise does amazing things for my stress levels.  I workout in the evenings for the sole purpose of having the ability to let out all of my frustrations and stresses during my workout.  Using my frustrations and stresses also fuels me and helps me to work out harder and put more oomph into things.  And afterwards I feel more relaxed and calm and am ready to settle in for the rest of the evening.

 

So, after reading this list, are there any things that you do that are the same/that are different than what I do to relax after a long day?  I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts.  Share in the comments below to discuss!

12 Random Facts About Me

In an attempt to make my blog more personal, check out the list below of random facts about me!

1. I’m the youngest child of four, resulting in me being infinitely spoiled by my grandparents as a child and having to learn from my parents at a young age that I, in fact, cannot get everything that I want.
2. Speaking of being the youngest, I always joke about getting the hand-me-down genetics.  To an extent though, I truly do believe it.  I’m only 5 foot half an inch, and I stopped growing in 8th grade.  My two brothers (the oldest two siblings) are both over 6 foot and my older sister is inches taller than me.  So, hand-me-down genetics, right?
3. Being the youngest influenced my parents to bless me with eight names.  Just kidding!  I only have four names but that still confuses everyone- one first name, two middle names, and my last name.  To make matters more confusing, I go by my second middle name.  How?  Two words- my grandma.  She was a saint and helped my parents with me when I was first born (remember, I’m the youngest so my parents were dealing with toddlers and a pre-teen) and she was really in love with the name “Emily,” so when push came to shove, my parents just threw that in after my other middle name because I was the last kid.  I have a hunch that as soon as I was born, my grandma immediately started calling me Emily and that’s how I became stuck with it.  It’s actually a pretty cool story.  Also to note, I have the same name as the royal toddler (Charlotte Elizabeth).  The only difference is the Emily vs. Diana as the second middle name, but I still think it’s pretty cool.
4. I started karate when I was 11.  Chugoku Kenpo Karate, a Japanese style, that literally means “Chinese secret science of the law of the fist and empty hand.”  Also, I was one step away from black belt (in my style, that means a three-striped brown belt) and didn’t move forward to my black belt only because of timing (I was in college, it was difficult to cram all of the testing into summers and holiday breaks).  But I’m very close with my sensei and she’s like a second mom to me.  She’s the first person in the first row on the left.
5. I have done other sports, too!  Karate was my first love, but running is a close second.  I did cross-country and track from middle school through college.  In fact, I just ran my first half-marathon in my hometown last weekend!
   

   

   Two hours and nineteen minutes later…

6. And that handsome man in that picture is my fiancé, who I met in college and have been dating for four years, engaged for two, and who I’m getting married to in just 17 short days!  And in reference to my names that I listed earlier, I told Kyle I was going to hyphenate as a joke to just continue the ridiculous length of my name.
7. Speaking of weddings, I have a kickass pair of heels that I splurged on (treat yo’ self!) but I actually HATE shoes.  I mean I love the heels that I got and I really am looking forward to wearing them, but I hate anything being on my feet, unless they’re sandals where my feet can breathe.  (This means I hate socks, too!). As a side note, when I say “splurge” I really only mean like $60, which is WAY better than what I spend on running shoes (~$100) but it still doesn’t sit well with me to spend that much on one thing.
8. I love walking and running and hiking and traveling to new places.  I’ve been to several states in the US, but I’ve also fortunately had opportunities to travel to England and Germany.  Next on my bucket list: Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland, hopefully!
   

   
9. Here’s a weird one for you that I’m sure not many people can relate to: I HATE cheese.  Absolutely hate it.  Hate the smell, hate the taste, hate the texture.  I’m un-American (my fiancé’s words, not mine).  I’m not sure what happened.  I used to love Mac and cheese as a kid, along with cheesy pizza, but something clicked one day and I gagged when I bit into a previously thought delicious slice of Papa John’s pizza.  To the people who love cheese but cannot have it due to their digestive systems, I’m the worst, and I apologize for my un-Americanness.
10. Speaking of weird things, I have an irrational fear of…..water.  Yep, you read that right.  Whenever I go into a pool, or an ocean, I have to stay in a level where my feet can always touch the ground.  I know what you’re thinking- can you swim, can you tread water?  I can do both of those things.  However, for whatever reason, the moment I’m in a body of water that’s deeper than neck level, I freak out because that’s when I have to be on tippy toes and any further I feel like I’ll drown.  You guys probably think I’m so weird by this point.
11. But something that’s pretty cool and un-weird is my love for tattoos.  I love how the same designs (i.e. Harry Potter tattoos) can mean something completely different to another person, and I love how you can express what you’re feeling on your body.  I have two tattoos, and they’re both for my grandma on my dad’s side who passed away of lung/metastasized breast cancer.  She lived in Texas so I only met her a handful of times before she passed away, but she made a huge, positive impact on my life.  The first tattoo I got was a flower that was designed by my sister.  The second tattoo was from my favorite book, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” and it lists the famous quote, “So it goes…”  My sister and I got that one together in almost the same spot on our bodies.  She has also designed another tattoo from Slaughterhouse-Five with the quote “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt” in remembrance of my grandparents on my mom’s side (yes, the grandma who gave me my name).  But that is a story for another time.
12. Lastly before this post gets absurdly long, I clean when I’m upset.  Why?  I have no idea.  I supposed it relieves stress?  Any psychologists have any idea why I do this?

 

I’d love to learn about you!  Share a random fact (or several, if you wish), or even rant to me about my un-Americanness in the comments section.  I look forward to reading them!

Growing Confidence: What Tonight Taught Me About Myself

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice – Steve Jobs

I have never had a lot of confidence in myself.  It’s something I’ve struggled with since I was younger, but it’s something I’ve been constantly working on to improve.  My confidence started growing more when I started taking karate, and I realized tonight that it’s continuing to grow stronger.

The past few days I’ve been running outside because the weather has been absolutely beautiful.  Tonight, I decided to do a Blogilates cardio workout (that was actually on the September calendar from yesterday- I switched my off days around) to get a good warm up in.  Now for the record, my usual move after doing the warm up video is to either repeat it a few times to get a solid cardio workout in or I continue with the rest of what’s on the calendar for that day.  But tonight was different.  Tonight I decided to practice karate.

I stepped outside of my small, one bedroom apartment to the little grassy area right in front of my door, took a deep breath, and started practicing.

I can’t even tell you the last time I practiced anything from karate, but it’s amazing how muscle memory works.  It felt like it had only been a week, if that, since I had practiced last.  Granted, I need a lot more practice to be as strong and crisp as I once was, but I definitely felt my movements being somewhat crisp.  My arms stopped exactly where they were supposed to (most of the time), and my stances were nearly as steady as they used to be.  I was giving it my all, which you can usually tell by how hard you’re breathing after doing one Kata (although, me being slightly out of breath may have been because I’m still building my endurance up through running, and would need to do the same for karate as well).  It felt great to be back at it again.

One thing you learn in karate is to focus.  You need focus in order to do any of the movements, to envision the fight so you punch/block/strike/or kick correctly, and to block out all of the sounds around you to keep you from getting distracted.  That’s what I did.  I paid no mind to the birds chirping around me, the cars driving past, or the people talking across the street at the little store.  The only time I ever paid attention to those distractions was when I was taking my water breaks after practicing a few Katas.

That’s when I sensed it.  I could feel someone was looking at me, so I glanced away from my water bottle to see one of my neighbors standing in his yard looking straight at me.  It was only a short time after that that I heard him say, “Yeah, I see her!  She’s in the black and green.”  He then proceeded to laugh.

I could tell he was speaking about me not only because he described exactly what colors I was wearing, but also because he was staring right at me.

If this would’ve happened a few years ago, I probably would’ve been in tears because of someone judging me.  Or I would’ve been ashamed and walked inside and pretended that I never went outside to practice at all.

I didn’t do any of those things.  Instead, I laughed it off.  I smiled at the guy as I saw him staring at me (which I hope he noticed) and started practicing the next Kata.  I’m not afraid to practice karate in the front of my apartment, nor am I ashamed at it.  Do I look funny throwing moves at the air with no one around?  Probably.  But that’s the entire purpose of them- you get the chance to practice all of the basics you know but in an organized form and envision a fight so that if you’re ever in a bad situation, you know how to react.  Your muscles remember.

I can only imagine who he was talking to or what the other person was saying in response, but I’m not going to waste my time on something like that.  Karate has brought me so much happiness.  It’s been there for me at some of the hardest points in my life.  So why would I be ashamed of practicing it right outside the comfort of my own apartment?  Why should I be ashamed?

The answer is I shouldn’t, and I’m not.  I was so comfortable practicing the Katas outside of my door, even as cars passed by.  I was confident.  For once in my life, I didn’t care about what people were thinking as they drove by or walked past.  I’m not bothered by my random neighbor laughing at me.

I realized tonight that I’m more confident in myself than I believe, and that I have the ability to do whatever I want without needing acceptance or approval from anyone else.  Tonight I did something because I wanted to do it, and I got laughed at, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to practice, and I can honestly tell you that it never will.