Navigating Turbulence and Finding Balance

Commuting between work and home was going to be very draining to go through every day, and so I moved. I'm with a family closer to work. Interstate travel was costly and stressful. A few weeks in, I began to feel this tension well up in my everyday life, and dispensing it became such a challenge.

I would wake up pretty early to do chores, as it is customary for me to be "useful" where I find myself, and then spend a lot of time in traffic in unfavourable conditions. After a long day at work, I would spend hours in traffic jams worse than those in the mornings.

There was nowhere to hang, chill, and unwind to release tension, and the family I stayed with were rather seclusive, so I was mostly indoors whenever I wasn't at work. This was killing me slowly on the inside, mostly because network service was always horrible and that often cut me off from the internet.

One evening, I found a gym nearby. It was only a five-minute walk. I felt drawn to the way people just worked on themselves for hours there, and even by the camaraderie I could sense when I stopped by to inquire about it. That was how I discovered something important for my wellbeing.

The gym became a place where I would release pent-up tension. I would only focus on the things that were important in that moment, which mostly included not dropping the weights on my head or feet. Followed by a bunch of bananas afterwards, I would sleep so well and have all my stress fade away.

Ever since I left, I always registered at the nearest gym anywhere I moved to. There's usually a lot to go through every day, so visiting the gym was someplace I'd go to settle the turbulence.

But I cannot always just jump into the gym every time I need to cool down. As a matter of fact, I figured that I thought way less when working out, and that meant that it only worked to "reset."

Taking walks is what I would rather do to process my thoughts. Trust me when I say that I ponder a lot. If our heads grew bigger each time we pondered, I would have one of the biggest heads and probably look like Brain from the animated series Pinky and the Brain.

One time, I was really sad and hurt by something I didn't understand with a dear one. I needed to let them know that I wasn't okay and that they contributed to it. Simply expressing my emotions wasn't going to help me do that efficiently and effectively, however. I needed to assess myself well first, understand the exact things that bothered me, and consider the possible solutions.

At 6:30 AM, I stepped out and took the longest walk I had ever taken in a long time. On that walk, anyone looking at me would have thought that I was on a phone call or just kookoo as I spoke to myself. But walking and talking with myself was just what I needed to do. And it worked.

On some days, I just want to have conversations with people to bring my moods to a balanced level. Sometimes, rather than call my dear ones and hurl at them with my baggage, I'd rather ask them about their lives.

We could talk about the things that brought joy and excitement into their lives, things that bothered them as well, or their plans and aspirations. Along the line, somehow, I would feel re-stabilised by talking with them. I would share with them too, as they would often know that I wasn't in a great mood.

In essence, a few of the things I do to bring balance to my moods are basically working out, taking walks, and talking with loved ones. They always work for me. What about you?