Stress-free, Migraine-Free

Thank you to all who replied with your headache remedies! I have suffered from migraines for about fifteen years and know my triggers, but sometimes it is a trigger I forget about: stress.

Yesterday, I completed a paper (for a required class) that focused on ineffective managers, a therapy paper as dubbed by students who previously completed it. Today, I am happy to report I feel so much better! It wasn't just that the migraine faded, my jaw doesn't hurt from grinding my teeth and my appetite is back. It finally dawned on me that rehashing the two years I spent working under the most incompetent managers I ever had, at the most poorly led organization I ever worked, bought back a cloud of negativity and subconsciously was stressing me out.

Between the time of quitting and moving for grad school, I planned to detox from the experience but despite my best efforts as a planner, unexpected activity took over. The start date of my assistantship was miscommunicated to me and because I could not move into my new apartment until the day before classes started, I was left commuting 2 hours each way, for two weeks. I figured it wasn't that big of a deal and I would manage. Then, my paternal grandfather died unexpectedly and sent our family into a tailspin.

Before I knew it, work and classes started and I was thrust into this new opportunity (which I was thrilled to have) and I shoved the past as far away as I could in order to fully enjoy and appreciate this new chapter (pun intended) in my life. In turn, I did not deal with the anger, frustration and stress of that job experience in the way I had hoped to. That paper forced me back, I have dealt with it and I am okay. I truly try not to seek stress, but sometimes it finds me and so I am reminded of a Mother Teresa quote my mom often says,

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

By the way, it wasn't all gloom and doom, the best thing that came from that experience is the support and encouragment from five former coworkers who I am very lucky to still call friends a year later!