In today’s busy and chaotic world, it’s normal for everyone to get stressed out. While some people are able to cope with their stress, others might have some difficulties. The same was the case with me when I just started my career as a photographer. I think saying “do what you love to do and work won’t feel like work” is a huge misconception. I am saying this because the same wasn’t true in my case. After all, we are all humans and we all get tired and stressed out. It’s normal. Even if your work is your passion.

I don’t believe in saying things without experiencing them and I’m saying these things because I have experienced them. I was 18 and I had just completed my schooling. I didn’t want to join a university as I had already found my passion for photography. I knew that I wanted to pursue my passion for photography and do something with that in life. So, I decided to skip higher education and start a photography shop.

I gathered the money I had saved up from clicking pictures of my schoolmates. I rented a small shop and started my very own photoshop. At that moment, I felt like I was on the top of the world and nothing could bring me down. Well, I was wrong. Before I realized it, I started overdoing myself to keep up with the rent and daily needs. The result? I started getting stressed out due to every little thing.

I started noticing dark circles under my eyes and it stressed me out even more. I was so confused at that time because I believed in one thing, “do what you love to do and work won’t feel like work” and that was proving to be false. What would you do if something you truly believe in starts falling apart in front of your eyes? Your dark circled scary looking eyes? I still had a hair of hope left in me and that hope was given to me by my camera.

I kept clicking random photos thinking that it would help me cope with my stress and make me happy. But no, I ended up putting more pressure on myself. I felt straight up helpless at that time as I didn’t know what I should do. Everything I tried, failed. Until one day, my friend (concerned about me) gave me the contact number of a therapist. At first, I thought “a therapist? He must be kidding me!!”. I told him that the first reason for me being stressed was my financial condition. My heart melted when he said, “I’ll pay”.

So, my first meeting with the therapist was normal. I felt nothing special except for the fact that she was gorgeous. Half of my stress flew away as soon as I saw her… Just kidding. Anyways, she talked to me about my past, present, and what I wanted to be in the future. Of course, I can’t go into the details about the things we talked about because therapist-patient sessions are supposed to be confidential. However, I can share the things that she recommended me to do to get rid of my stress issues.

At first, I was hesitant as I thought she was going to recommend some medicines and I was strictly against those. I witnessed my uncle struggle with them when I was young and I didn’t want the same to happen to me. I was surprised as well as glad when she didn’t recommend even a single medicine.

She told me to follow these simple steps:

• Take at least eight hours of sleep: She said that one of the main reasons for stress is that people avoid sleeping for eight hours. They tend to cut off a few hours from their sleep thinking that it won’t do much harm. The reason for them doing this is the daily grind nowadays. Well, they are wrong. Sleeping for wight hours is very important to avoid being stressed. It reduced the chances of getting stressed out by a considerable margin.

• Stop being a workaholic: She said what I said at the starting of the article… “do what you love to do and work won’t feel like work” is a huge misconception. Even if you are following your passion, you need to give time to yourself. You need to take out time to do other things you like such as meeting your friends, reading novels, watching TV, etc. Trust me when I tell you, I was so hooked up to my work, I didn’t even have a TV in my house. This changed after I took up therapy.

• Take a break when you feel exhausted: It’s not necessary to complete a task on the same day you started it, especially when you are working independently. I refused to take breaks while working because I thought I would get my work done faster this way. Well again, I was wrong. I ended up making more and more mistakes which delayed the tasks even more. This was until I took my therapist’s advice and started taking breaks while working.

Following the above steps helped me a lot in relieving my stress and I still follow them to keep stress far away from me. Although I don’t recommend going to a therapist as it costs a lot of money, I do recommend following the above steps if you want to relieve your stress. I am sharing these steps so that they can help those who might need them. Most people can’t seem to figure out a way to reduce their stress and this article is for them. I hope you liked my story and it helped you in the way you needed it to. Stay happy and keep thriving!