Hello from the beginning of another exciting week!
We’re slowly approaching the end of January, and I’m still trying to shape my habits - ditch the useless and reconstruct better ones - for the new year.
Writing more is one of my serious resolutions.
Yet, I had many responsibilities piled up and unfortunately couldn’t separate time for producing articles on Medium; so far I have only two published articles in the month of January.
But, I have many ideas floating in my mind and on my drafts and as soon as I have time to sit down and write, I know that I will publish more.
Right now, the kind of writing I do instead is academic writing. I’m dabbling with writing my first official scientific paper. To do that, I’m devouring the relevant literature, highlighting, taking notes, and interpreting my research findings.
This will be the publication of a project I worked on for a year and I will finally conclude it with a research article.
To be honest, the whole process was really stressful for me. Working with approaching deadlines, trying to learn new and hard concepts, and skills such as programming, the whole process was a whole package of challenges.
Another stress-inducing ongoing event in my life is my master’s application process. I finally applied to the universities I wanted, but the whole process was and is demanding.
Collecting and filling out all the required documents, preparing motivation letters for both the admissions and scholarships I’m applying to and making sure I’m not missing any important deadlines.
These are the two major things that give me stress in my current life. But I also have the stress of finding a job to save up some money before my master’s, future, monetary and career-related stresses, and so on.
Sometimes stress fires me and makes me deal with all the tasks I have in front of me, or motivates me to explore more.
Yet, most times, the stress I experience mentally tires me and makes me even less effective in my work, encouraging me to procrastinate and giving me stress headaches.
Indeed, stress makes itself pretty visible in terms of its effects on my mental and physical health. It detriments the quality of my days and even the work I produce. It harms my self-concept and rivets my future anxiety.
When I see these effects, I’m reminded once more that our mental health matters so much and it affects each aspect of our lives, so we need to take good care of ourselves and halt that negative self-talk, and stop overthinking & ruminating in their tracks whenever we identify them.
This requires practice, like all things in life. If you want more detail about the topic of stress, and how can you detect both obvious but also unobvious signs of stress on you, I’m giving you this link and assuring you an insightful read.
6 Blatant Signs That Show You’re Stressed Out and Need a Mental-Break
To wrap up this week’s newsletter, I hope you start and go along with your week not going too hard on yourself, allowing rest to prevent burnout and feelings of overwhelm, and doing activities that will heal your mind.
Know that you can handle your list of tasks without the pressure of debilitating stress. On that note, have a great rest of your week!