Have you ever felt like life was swallowing you whole? If you said yes, yay! now we can be buddies! *high five* Unfortunately, being overwhelmed comes with the distinct feeling of wanting to jump through the window the moment life sneak attacks us. And honestly, being overwhelmed is overwhelming, especially if you're someone who likes to have everything under control *cough*like me*cough*. This semester has been crazy—going to my local community college and having deadlines for the first time, college responsibilities and career planning, my brother preparing for a two-year church mission, and me trying to expand my blog—and things...got out of hand. And then for some reason I thought it would be a smart idea to take on NaNoWriMo. So I shouldn't be stumped about why my mood has been "run away" for the past month and a half. XD

We get overwhelmed when we take on too much. I like to have a lot of things going on at the same time because it makes me feel productive, but if I take on too much like I did this semester, then I lose focus and life gets wacky. Thankfully I've had enough sense to do something about it over the last week and a half. XD I thought up an "Operation: get life back on track" emergency plan! It works because I've been feeling waaay more relaxed about life. Hey, I even got up the energy to write this blog post! :D


So first things first, I face the facts. I took on too much and now I have all these random emotions bottled up. To clear up the emotions, I write about them. The rants in my journals read something like "asdfghjkl help I wanna scream," but writing about my emotions helps me sort out what I'm feeling, and once I've spilled, I have a clear enough head to separate myself from the problem and brainstorm  how to move forward.

Next, I make a plan to avoid feeling so overwhelmed again. I really don't like to cut any activities because cutting creative outlets makes me stressed, so I look at different ways to work the problem. I've realized that my biggest problem has consistently been that I suck at time management. Y'all, I think I'm organized but nope! XD Life has this way of constantly surprising us with things about ourselves.

I'm trying to commit myself to using to-do lists everyday to keep me focused. I have an app called To-Do that lets me create different lists for different priorities. Then everything for the day pops up on one big list. By examining how many tasks I actually complete in a day, I get a visual representation of my limits. Using to-do lists also helps me gauge how much time I'm spending on nonsense, like thirty-seven-minute challenge videos on YouTube or repeatedly scrolling through the same photos on my Instagram feed.

Getting things done ahead of time also is also life-saving. I've really had to buckle down and get my act together because I have semester finals coming up and I have to take the ACT that same week, so I'm doing every homework assignment I can before then so I can focus on studying for tests. Hopefully by doing this, the stress I feel will be minimal.*

*HAHAHA dream on, sweetie.

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I also have to make sure that I'm taking care of myself. When I get overwhelmed, I tend to disconnect from social life, which isn't always a good thing. Social media, blogging, and texting make me feel so much pressure to interact with people and I just don't. want. to be. social.** I've noticed that it's not because my social battery is drained, but because communicating with other people takes up too much time that I don't have—remember? I'm overwhelmed. I deal with this by giving myself time to breathe from everything else. I take an hour to focus on people and social stuff, and then I return to getting myself on track.

Other important things are eating whole, nutritious meals, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep. When I do those things, they make a world of difference in how much I feel I can tackle during the day.

**Where's the nearest tower? I'm locking myself inside and not coming out for eighteen years. 


Finally I have to stop myself from making everything a priority; balance is super important! School is a priority, but so is mental health, which includes creative outlets. So I can't exactly cut off all creative outlets if I want to stay sane enough to study. But school is definitely the bigger one. So the solution would be to study and then take a couple of breaks every day to do something fast and fulfilling, like sketching a design, writing story snippets, or spending twenty minutes on the piano (I can't really take much more. XP #tanglyfingers ). I also refrain from starting large projects that take a lot of concentration and time until the higher prioritized task at hand is complete. For example, I want to plan and produce at least half of the content on this blog for the next six months,*** but I'm waiting to start until I'm on my four-week break in December and don't have to focus on classes.

***O_O Yikes that's a massive project, hahaha *sweats nervously* Hey, but it's for you guys (<333) and the survival of my sanity #create #yeet

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I'm trying harder to not to take on more than I can. Sometimes I can't tell what is too much, and that's okay, because I'm still young and I need to learn my limits. But it's nice to have an emergency process to go through when I do get overwhelmed. So now it's your turn. 



I'm not exactly at my normal creative levels yet to bring this blog back to it's usual fun vibrance (guys, I've been away for so long, it makes me sad D'X O.o) but once finals are over, I can finally settle into my old blogging routine and hopefully have posts up every weekend. :)

OH and guess what??!! I finally got an Instagram for my blog! My username is @wildpennings if you're interested in following me. Thank you so much to those who have already followed me there! Your support means so much to me. <333 If you have a blogging Instagram account, drop your username in the comments and I'll check it out!