Breakdown

Four days into NaNoWriMo and I'm already neglecting you all! That's mostly because I didn't get my posts auto-scheduled last weekend as intended. Maybe this weekend, if I'm very very lucky, but I'm going to the Austin Celtic Festival most of the weekend so my chances of that kind of luck are looking pretty slim.

This is what I'm like... I'm the one
looking the wrong way because
I want to make sure all the other
chicks are doing it right. Source.

So today's tip isn't necessarily green, but I'm also into general healthiness, and I think that's what this falls into. But first, some backstory! I have this tendency to approach the whole universe like I'm its older sister. One of these days I hope to grow out of it, and start leaving the universe alone to do whatever it wants to do without me bossing it around. (I'm not really that bossy. I'm the older sister who offers you a tissue and says "there, there" and only bosses you if you ask my opinion.)

And the other downside is that I tend to take on other people's stress and worries. Specifically, this week, it's some of my coworkers at the Writing Center. We've hit the stressful point of the semester, plus the onset of cold season. And when you add to that the normal "what do I do with my life" and the hormonal garbage that comes with being in your early 20s, my coworkers are carrying around a lot of stress. (Yes, a lot of it is self-inflicted. That doesn't make me feel any less sorry for them.) And I absorb that anxiety off of them and add it to my own.

So, coming back round to the point, my tip this week is partly adopted from Sleeping Naked is Green and partly my own experience: Search for healthy, uplifting ways to deal with your stress.

Maybe you need a cup of tea. Maybe you'll go for a walk. Maybe you'll read a book or watch a funny movie. Maybe you just need a nap (easier said than done, I know). For me, it's been NaNoWriMo... I've been inflicting my own stress upon my characters, which frees me from carrying it around. Works great.

What do you do when the world gets to be too much? Should I write you into my novel?