One great stress management technique is writing. Writing what you are thinking as you are thinking it can help you to clear your head and give you peace and clarity. I have been using this technique for several years with either journal writing or just writing to write. Last year I was given what I thought of as my easies English assignment ever because it was just that, stream of consciousness writing. Here are a few examples to help you know what it looks like. (you can do this by hand or typing but i personally prefer by hand because then you don't have to think about what you are writing.



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Flying high living life. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Just living life to the fullest and doing your best with what you’ve got. Well I guess in some ways I could do better but whatever I am trying. Pursuit of happiness and all that I really need to find a good movie to watch sometime I haven’t really sat down all the way through one that wasn’t school related in a long time. eh whatever I will get some time for myself eventually someday I will have a break and relax for some me time hm , maybe that’s a good idea that would help with the running , maybe clear my head up a bit and give me some peace for once . Speaking of which I really can’t wait till I can run for me so that I can do just that, clear my head and get some thoughts on life. That is what I do when I’m not competing I only run what I feel like running and it helps me figure out life more and get things sorted. Well ya sorting isn’t really my thing though I mean really people would die if they had to ride in my car it’s like a cross between my pit of death with school stuff and a locker-room with my xc stuff all over the place and don’t even get me started with the door that I still haven’t fixed . It’s still a little lacking in the every5thing but metal category. The whole panels gone because I’m repairing things and getting new speakers. I need music, music helps me to flow to really get myself going and do things smoothly if i could run with music in a race dang I would be unbeatable nothing could stand in my way I would be the next Prefontaine winning races left and right fighting my way to the finish vanquishing my foes and coming out victorious! Invictus an interesting word I really wish they would have kept it for English sounds so much better than victorious I kind of just like Latin words better in general they flow better and sound more poetic. Freedom running through the woods branches whipping at my face , flying on the wings of eagles such an amazing feeling just letting go and being free I love being out in the woods this time of year the leaves all around and a nice crisp breeze unless it rains then I only like being out if I’m on a run it’s not bad when I’m running because then it just kind of steams off and it still feels warm even if its freezing outside .This winter should be nuts with la Niña and all that supposed to really dump on us and give us a real winter again should be a nice change . Halloween kind of flew by this year I didn’t do anything for once and I was pretty distracted anyway with running. At least last year I went to a friend’s house and made fun of the older kids that were out trick or treating pretty lame but still sadly better than this year. I’ve kind of lamed out this year now that I’ve started up green river can’t really have much of a life past the xc team but what more can you ask for its worth it to do as well as I’ve been able to scrape. School can be a little tough for me since I haven’t really worked hard for it until this past year or so when I decided to get serious and do what I knew I needed to get into the college I still want to get into later.



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Life is going fast and ridiculous, I’m sick and tired of being stuck behind Richmond and Lunder I’m going to push myself harder to the brink and pain will quickly, I think the reason that I’ve been slower us that I’ve forgotten how to push myself. I had gotten afraid of what had happened before with my butt and ankle and was unwilling to push myself to the wall again and risk injury again. Yesterday I pushed on that wall so hard that I was able to stick to Danny the whole run and finish the 9.5 in less than an hour. On other notes I’m a horrible person and I can’t figure out my own mind, its killing me. I don’t know what choices to make which doors lead to happiness and at the moment pretty much knocking on all the doors I see waiting for someone to open one and for me to decide to jump in over the next few months I’m sure we will see what happens. So back to yesterdays practice I was dumb enough to let Logan zip tie my hands together because well , it seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a long time and I’m pretty sure that I had never voluntarily burned the hair off my wrists with matches before; hey I mean really any way out right? In the end it was a cinderblock to rub half way through the ties and then I just used my strength to break them the rest of the way. All in all it was pretty dang ridiculous.


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Falling hard feeling the pain throughout my whole right side, blood dripping down my leg staining my sock a bloody red brown. I fell near the end of the race but I still picked up the pace enough to at least catch my rival and get close to him again. I’m just glad I’m back in it supposedly I kind of went through a stage where I was grumpier and just kind of sad and my running suffered I was running minutes slower than I knew my body could even though most of the time during practice I ran where I was supposed to be . Also I’m pretty sure part of my jump start has to do with asking my friend out to homecoming and just getting my mind off school and running and back on my life . I have been shutting myself out to the world not really letting people in and blocking out everything unessential. I would almost call it a lonely world but in some ways I like it its peaceful and I do things at my own pace and my way. Sometimes I think I need to get out and live more and stop keeping a narrow focus on life but it’s so hard for me to do well at the things I truly care about without really sinking into them and letting them consume me taking control. Running is a good example of that no matter how hard I try somehow no matter what I have at least one running related conversation or have some big running focused thing every day and to me that’s how it has to be, because if I didn’t let it take control I wouldn’t be half the runner or person that I am today my running has helped to shape who I am and how I act giving me a base and a thing that I can turn to always.

Given that most people have busy lives it ironically makes it harder for us to find ways to relieve our stress adding upon itself. The key to keeping you life running as smoothly and normaly as possible is to take little moments in your day for yourself.
Try to just sit down and appreciate life.
Sit outside to eat your lunch one day.
Think about what you have in your life,don't focus on what you dont have
Take a breath of fresh air and realize not everyone has that opportunity
Look around you at the world,see the beauty in it,the trees the flowers the bright sky
Take a walk,run,or bike ride, feel the fresh air and appreciate the ability you have to walk
Smile at someone you dont know

Go out of your way to try new things and appreciate life and you will see the stress in your life less, even with our hectic lives we can still take the time to appreciate the fact that we are alive. We live in a free country. If we dont haeve something we can work hard and get it. We can do anything we set out to do.

One of the best ways I have found to relieve stress is by running,not everyone thinks it is a peacefull activity but to me it is the best solution when life is getting you down.
----"There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open."

Another solution to stress is music, music helps the mind to relax and focus on one thing. Stress is inevitable, it is how we react to it that affects us. We can take it like cough syrup having to choke it down or we can accept it as something that is going to happen for good or bad. Through focusing with music or meditation we are given an outlet to help us handle things. When we break our stress down like that it is much more manageable and we are able to just live instead of being beaten down and incapacitated by it.

Stress can come in all forms. Driving,exercising,reading,watching tv,talking to people,not talking to people. Everything causes some type of stress or another. The key is to get to know yourself and what you can handle. Understand what you are affected by strongly and what helps you handle the other stressor better.

Author Unknown ~ Stress is the confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it ~

Every one of us deals with stress. We do it every day. That doesnt mean we have to like it,sometimes we need to release that stress to keep ourselves sane and on trqack this is what this site is about. Keeping it together even when it gets had through having outlets and healthy ways to exert our pent up energy so as not to let it eat us up.