Let’s talk about stress. That sneaky little demon that can give you a hundred warning signs, and you don’t see a single one until you notice that the world has become all doom and gloom.
Wait — that’s depression. But the first tends to cause the second. The bad kind of stress, anyway.
Yes, there are good and bad forms of stress. Good has me cramming to make a deadline, producing a story I never suspected I could write. Bad renders my work sub-par if it doesn’t kill productivity outright.
For the last week or so, stress — the bad kind — and its buddy depression have been a Thing I would much rather they didn’t. Ever.
This time of year with the days getting shorter and shorter, it tends to happen more frequently. This cycle in my day job work schedule makes it harder, because I have less time to devote to blogging, to writing, and all those things that are most important to me. Life, in general, has had its fair share of ups and downs lately. Between adjusting to these, and the Kickstarter, and my non-NaNoing, andandand . . . yeah, I was bound to drop a few balls.
But I’m fixing it! I’m limiting my expectations of myself and refocusing my priorities to be more in line with my goals and happiness. Even had a long overdue, much needed conversation today that I’ve been avoiding for months.
I feel like maybe I can start breathing again.
In more happy news, a quick note about the Winter in the City Kickstarter: R. B. and I have a conversation up on editor Marty Halpern’s blog More Red Ink (so please take a look), and more of our potential authors blogging about it all the time. Check out the anthology’s Facebook page for links!
Melissa Burkart 