Stress Who?

We all get stressed every now and then; especially around this time of year as we’re scrambling to get things ready for the holidays so that winter break can hopefully be relaxing. Stress can be an obstacle that prevents you from doing what you want, and sometimes even being who you want to be. There are many things that can cause stress: school, work, family, friends, social obligations, and countless others. There isn’t any real way to completely avoid stress because it is a part of life that everybody will experience. However, there is good news. Once you have accepted that stress will be part of your life sometimes, you can experiment with a number of different ways to relieve or reduce the amount of stress you have to deal with.

How to Deal
There is no right way to deal with stress because we are all different. Some people find that music (listening to, playing, or singing) is a good way to relieve stress. Others find that just driving around can be a very calming experience. One of my personal favorite ways to alleviate stress is to lose myself in a good movie or tv show and just escape reality for a little bit, because often once I return to it I find that things aren’t as bad as I thought they were. What’s your favorite way of dealing with stress? I’m interested in finding new methods.

How NOT to Deal
Even though there is no right way to deal with stress, there are some wrong ways. Anything that involves hurting yourself or others is an unproductive and dangerous way of handling a stressful situation. If there is any question in your mind whether or not the way you are handling your stress is dangerous, chances are you should find a new method.

When Stress Becomes You
You may be wondering what stress has to do with your identity. Being stressed is an emotion, not something that defines you, right? To a certain extent, yes. However, like any emotion, if you don’t know how to control it, stress can consume you and define how you live your life. Being stressed can lead to problems with your mental and physical health, and can also affect the way that you treat the people around you. As I’m sure you’re aware, people who are under a lot of stress aren’t always the most pleasant to be around. None of us want to be known as that grumpy person, so as an early new year’s resolution let’s promise to find healthy ways to reduce the amount of stress in our lives.

My Life, My Religion

Currently, in my English and History classes, we are studying the Islamic Revolution. We have watched the film Persepolis and are currently reading Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, two different works that teach about Islamic culture and the oppressive regime that the people living in Iran during the Revolution faced. We are also using blogs as a means of information about Islam to get perspectives that we may not get elsewhere. However, not all blogs about Islam are purely for educational purposes, as I found when I stumbled across faithfreedom.org. This blog contained different articles, poems, and charts about the Islamic faith that I found highly offensive. For example, there is a chart labeled “differences between Jesus and Muhammad” that makes Muhammad seem like a heartless murderer and Jesus seem flawless. Even being a Christian who worships Jesus, I have a problem with this chart because the author is skewing the story of Islam to make Muhammad seem to be something he is not.

My Beliefs
For many people, religion is a part of who they are and plays a big role in their daily life. People don’t go around questioning why you have brown eyes and two sisters; they just accept that that’s who you are. So why should your religion be any different? Unfortunately, there are people in this world that think that their way is the only right way, and anybody who disagrees or has a conflicting idea is wrong. There are these closed-minded people in every faith, so there is always going to be somebody who disagrees with your beliefs or values. The important thing to remember is that how somebody else feels about your religion doesn’t matter.

My Choice
What’s really important is that you stay true to your beliefs because they are a big part of your identity. Even if you don’t completely agree with every aspect of your own religion, that is something you should recognize and accept. When people say cruel things about the beliefs that make up who you are, such as the author of faithfreedom.org, it is okay to get mad or feel hurt because it is a very personal attack. However, you can’t allow these cruel words to lead you to question your faith because then you are letting other people decide your identity for you. The judgments that others pass about you or your beliefs can be a limitation to your identity that isn’t always easy to overcome, but stay true to yourself because those strongly-spoken people don’t have any authority to tell you what to believe.