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Family Life and Stress

Days Past

We take on more obligations as we get older. This may not have been the case when we were much younger. When growing up, all we might have had to deal with were chores from our parents and may have even gotten an allowance too. We may have been told to wash the dishes, do the laundry and mow the lawn and our homework too. Most of us dealt with a defined set of responsibilities and then we were able to go and play, we didn’t have any other care in the world. We took care of our chores as quickly as we possibly could and then went to go find some diversions or make up our own. Those days go by so fast.

Growing Older

But as we grow older we find that there is more to be done. We find that there is more expectations, expectations that bring with it more obligations. We get past high school and head off toward college, the second tier of academia. We find that there are more costs involved in our decisions, tuitions have to be paid for and the expectation is that we will succeed in school. We will make great grades because of costs incurred as well the fact that our future is on the line. Some of us may find that we have to go to work at a local food joint or mall to help stave off costs and earn our way through college, a process which helps us to understand the need for work and why it matters in our lives. While in college we enter into many different relationships. There are those that are social, school clubs, fraternities and other. Then those relationships which are more personal and intimate and others that are professional as well.

In each of the relationships that we enter into and each of the activities that we take on, we realize that there are expectations and responsibilities that are attached. We learn that we have to go to class on time or the professor may close the door and deduct points from our final grades, we learn that we have to go to work on time or we let down our co-workers and the end customer and that we have to work hard in school to make our parents proud. We might also realize that we have our own individual expectations. We expect to be at one destination or other in life and we know that we will only get there by taking on certain responsibilities and making certain decisions. Life may throw different stressors at us, different obstacles to overcome and yet we press on while learning more about how the world turns each day. We then graduate college and seek to start our careers and potentially get married.

Adulthood

We graduate college, polish up our resumes and land a job. Ideally, we have found a job in our intended careers but this may not always be the case for a variety of reasons. At times we may start with an entry-level role that is way off from where we started but we realize that everyone has to start somewhere. We take the setbacks with stride, vape a little, take a couple of deep breaths and keep hacking away. We progress on in life, we think to ourselves that we want a family life, so we go on a couple of dates, experience some squabbles, de-stress by vaping with our e-cigarettes, work out our issues and then get married.

We begin our family life, a life that comes with different expectations of its own. We have to tend our significant others, do our chores (while not getting paid for it) and make sure that we’re tending to our kids and doing what we can to create the best possible future for them. We might find that we rarely get time for breaks, that there is always something that needs to be done.

If we don’t pay attention we can take a significant amount of stress and burnout. To avoid falling into this state of lethargy and overall tiredness due to a lack of regular breaks time to de-stress make sure to figure out how to pace yourself.

The Pomodoro technique helps in time management as well as being able to catch yourself if you’ve gone down the rabbit hole of endless work. Take short breaks each day to de-stress how you see fit, whether that means taking a few short strolls while vaping each day or getting out of work mode and relaxing at a park nearby, take the time out.

You’ll be glad you did.

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