I sat down to write my Friday post and I was at a loss. Work has been crazy, I’ve been feeling like I am being pulled in a thousand different directions and some days I just want to crash and not think about any of it. Please tell me I am not the only one who has felt this way?

I’ve had a lot going on in my life recently. It’s been confusing, frustrating, happy, and stressful. All wrapped up into one. I share some of it but some days it is hard for me to sit down and write a profound running post when honestly my mind is elsewhere.

So today, you are going to get a jumbled post of thoughts.

As stress comes into life I’ve been known to handle it poorly. I take a lot of stress upon myself that really I shouldn’t. It has been pretty debilitating at certain times in life, but I finally come to a point in my life where I am realizing how damaging this can be.

I’ve learned a couple ways to cope over the past couple weeks.

Prayer ­– I’ve been praying much more the past several weeks, and while I might not always feel like I am getting an answer or the answer isn’t what I want it has really helped bring peace.

Running – Of course, running is always a form of stress relief.  Sometimes we left running take over our lives, or we put too much importance on it and that is when it becomes more of a chore. Learning to truly just relax and let running come to me as it’s meant to has impacted many areas of my life and stress management.

Communication – There is a lot of truth to saying communication is the key to any relationship. I’ll be upfront in saying it hasn’t always been my strong suit which has hurt my marriage at times. I’ve really been focusing on opening up, truly saying how I feel, and letting go of the fear of judgment. My husband LOVES ME and isn’t going to judge or ridicule me.

Sleep – The past week I have focused on getting more sleep. During marathon training, it is something that is often sacrificed. Instead of getting up early I’ve been taking more mornings to sleep in. Getting 8 hours of sleep a night really does wonders.

Sometimes during different cycles we have to reevaluate where we are. You aren’t perfect and sometimes things aren’t going to go exactly as planned. Guess what? That’s OK! Part of this crazy journey is learning how to adjust and adapt.

I’ve learned so much recently and one of those is learning how to truly rest my body. I want to push it to its limits, and sometimes that’s great and is required, but there are also days when you need to listen to what your body is telling you. It’s not always easy but ignoring it can often be essential to performing at your best.

I didn’t really know where this post was going to go, and I’m still not sure it made any sense but I just wanted to share my feelings.

On a more uplifting note, here are some great quotes that have really stuck with me lately:

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How do you manage your stress?