I am learning that my stress behavior shows up as a lack of communication. When I get stressed, I don’t stay in touch with friends. It is as if all my energy and focus goes to staying grounded and present. And the idea of reaching out to others makes me THINK I am not being present. But the operative word is “think” because in reality every time that I do talk to a good friend, I feel so much more grounded. It reminds me of who I am.

This tendency also shows up in my blogging. I can’t bring myself to sit down and write when I am feeling stressed out from having so many competing priorities. And the more time that lapses between posts, the less I want to get back into it. But again, the minute I actually start writing again, I am reminded why I write in the first place. It also connects me back to what I stand for and what I value.

A lot of the time, the first thing to go in stressful situations is self-care. We don’t feel like it is important enough… perhaps we even feel that WE are not important enough. But what I have been learning over the last couple of years is that self-care is a muscle that we have to develop and nurture. It takes practice to get used to taking care of ourself and our needs. Especially those of us that tend to put other people’s needs before our own.