Everyone handles stress and anxiety differently. Some people work well under pressure and some don’t. I’m part of the group that doesn’t, which is pretty ironic considering my job is high stress and full of anxious people most of the time. After a couple of chaotic work weeks, I mentioned to someone that I was planning on taking a day off the following week – their response: “take the weekend to relax and you’ll feel better”.  I’m almost positive smoke came out of my ears. A few things crossed my mind in that moment:

• Don’t assume you know what’s best for me.

• Don’t assume my weekends are full of downtime.

• Don’t put a time frame on when I’ll feel better.

I was already feeling defeated and deflated, like I became the metaphorical punching bag for quite a few people. I felt like I was drowning, like every time I came up for air, someone pushed my head underwater. Nothing was going right and that comment sent me right over the edge.

But, I took what she said and did the best I could with the couple of days I had off. That weekend happened to be my friend’s birthday and we had plans spanning from a color run to brunch to a street fest and other festivities. We had very little downtime, but the constant celebrating was exactly what I needed to come down from a stressful month.

In the time I spent with my friends, I was reminded of a few things:

• Spending time with friends is healing

• Spend time with yourself to unwind

• Take care of yourself – burning the candle at both ends helps no one

• Treat yourself to something small

• Laughing really is the best medicine

By the end of the weekend, I was feeling pretty refreshed, but still felt like I needed to take a mental health day to really take time for myself and decided to take a long weekend – I can’t remember the last time I took a couple of days off without any premeditated plans.  I mentioned this to a couple people and they congratulated me, but I couldn’t figure out why I was being congratulated for working myself so hard that I had to take time off to clear my head. But that’s when I realized why they said that. When you work hard, you deserve to treat yourself. It’s almost like celebrating your hard work. I’m not going to lie, there were plenty of tears during the chaos, but, sometimes you just need to throw a temper tantrum and have a good cry, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that’s okay. As long as it’s in the privacy of your own home!