A couple months back I attended Coastal Magic in Daytona Beach, and besides having a great deal of fun, I was reminded that downtime is good. This should be obvious, but sometimes I forget. I suspect I’m not the only one.
In the weeks leading up to this convention I’d been slaving over my current book—the last in the Demon Trappers series so the reader expectations are off the chart—and preparing our house for sale in June. On top of all that we’re hoping to move to Europe this summer, which requires jumping through numerous immigration hoops plus clearing out nearly ALL of our earthly possessions. My stress meter has been redlining for some time.
I can handle a lot of stress, but eventually it screws up my ability to think clearly. By the time I arrived in Daytona Beach I was seriously “airy fairy”, as a friend of mine kindly phrased it. In other words, I had the intelligence of a boiled potato. Since I’m a Scorpio, this is not my default setting.
Though I didn’t get a chance to walk along the beach, just being close to the water seemed to reset my brain, as did hanging with my fellow authors, as well as some dear friends. By the time I returned home I was back online and felt refreshed.
No doubt all of us have been compromised by stress, at one time or another. It can manifest in physical symptoms—headaches, intestinal issues, mental fog, to name just a few—as well as affect our sleep patterns. Juggling our many responsibilities can be overwhelming, especially if those include raising kids, working a full-time job and, perhaps, caring for your parents’ welfare. That doesn’t include being an indie author.
So how do you lower your stress when you’re buried and can see now way out?
Here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way.
Read the full article: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2017/04/stress-and-indie-author.html
No comments:
Post a Comment