April Is Stress Awareness Month, But Are We Actually Aware of Our Stress?

April is Stress Awareness Month, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately, because I don't think most of us are actually aware of how stressed we are. Not really.

I think a lot of women, especially in their 30s and beyond, are walking around stressed every day, but we don't call it stress. We call it being busy. We call it being tired. We call it 'just a lot going on right now.'

But if we stop for a second and really look at our lives, it makes sense that we are stressed.

We are trying to build careers, keep up with the cost of living, maintain friendships, maybe find a partner, maybe go through a breakup, maybe think about having children, maybe deal with not having children, maybe we have them already and we are trying to find ourselves again, maybe start over in a new city, maybe take care of our parents, maybe figure out who we are now because we are not the same person we were a couple years ago.

That's a lot for one person.

And the thing is, this kind of stress is very invisible.

You can look completely fine on the outside. You go to work, you answer emails, you go to the gym, you meet friends, you post nice pictures, you look like you have your life together.

But inside, you feel like you are constantly thinking, constantly worrying, constantly planning, constantly comparing, constantly trying to make the right decisions so you don’t 'mess up your life.'

That's stress too.

I also think loneliness is a form of stress that we don't talk about enough. Not having people to talk to every day. Not having someone to make plans with. Not having a support system in the same city as you. Having to make all the decisions alone. Being independent all the time.

Independence is great, but it's also exhausting when you don't get a break from it.

I don't think the problem is that we are 'bad at handling stress.'

I think the problem is that modern adult life is just a lot, and most of us are trying to handle it alone and in silence, while telling ourselves that we should be grateful and that other people have it worse.

So maybe for Stress Awareness Month, the goal is not to completely remove stress (that's probably impossible), but to become more honest about it.

To admit when we are overwhelmed.

To admit when we are lonely.

To admit when we are scared about the future.

To admit when we don't know what we are doing.

Because the moment you say those things out loud, you realise two things:

1. You are not the only one who feels this way.

2. You don't have to do everything alone.

And that is exactly why I created Hey30s+. Not just for events, but so that women who feel like this can find each other, talk, share, and realise that there is nothing wrong with them for finding this stage of life hard sometimes.

So if you've been feeling more tired than usual, more irritable, more anxious, more emotional, more overwhelmed, maybe you are not 'failing at life.'

Maybe you are just stressed. And maybe it makes perfect sense.

Olga

Hey30s+ Founder 💛