Life has been life-ing all over us the last month or so.

I heard someone else put it that way, and I liked it so much that I have used the term extensively since. Because life has indeed been life-ing.

I knew that the period of time between Warrior Unchained (September 19-21) and the end of October would be busy. I had three conferences, including Warrior, The Women’s Leadership Conference and the Small Business Owners Community annual conference in the span of four weeks. I was the emcee for Warrior and a breakout speaker at the WLC. In between, I officiated a wedding. In October, we decided we were going to travel to Minneapolis to spectate the Diamond Nationals karate tournament and hang out with my sister’s family a little bit. We also have three family birthdays in October.

I knew it was going to be a lot. And everything was going really well with the beginning of the school year and the start of my new job as a Chiropractic Assistant. Our schedules were new and different and challenging, but after a couple of weeks, things were working as well as we could expect.

The day before Warrior Unchained, my oldest son made a mistake at school which lead to an understandable, yet complete overreaction on the part of the school, the police and the district. Long story short, he is currently enrolled in virtual learning, we have to be in court at the end of the month and we’re still weighing the pros and cons of pursuing further legal action on his behalf.

So I’m working full time, still building an emceeing career and business and feeling all the mom feelings about what my son is going through.

Oh yeah, and I still have cancer.

I’ve been carrying a LOT these last few weeks. The part that comforts me is that I have not been carrying it all alone. My husband has really stepped up at home since I’ve been working. He handled a lot of the back and forth with the school and the school district. My friends and faith community have all offered both practical and spiritual support. And my business besties have all laughed and cried and raged right along with me as I faced some negative attention on my professional social media related to the drama involving my son.

I emceed Warrior Unchained like a boss.

I led a room full of women leaders through learning about and detoxing from the drama triangles in their lives and businesses.

I showed up to work and learned and memorized and did paperwork.

I had two wisdom teeth pulled on Monday, and on Friday, we drove to Minneapolis.

Today, Saturday, I’m resting. I’m processing. I’m watching the live stream of Diamond Nationals while my husband and son are there in person to check out the sparring competitions. I sat in my sister’s sauna. I didn’t get dressed until after 2pm.

Stress is the biggest contributor to disease.

People say that all the time. Even my husband’s doctor tells him that stress is the most likely cause of the symptoms he’s been experiencing. What nobody really tells you is how to deal with stress.

In this modern life, which is continually life-ing like it’s never lifed before, how does one reduce stressors? How does one address stress and move through it without damage? They tell us the why and the what. I think the how is harder because stress hits everyone differently. The same stress might not affect one person at all and knock another down for days.

Here are a few things I know about myself and stress:

• Sleep helps

• Journaling helps

• Talking and venting to and with friends helps a LOT

• Prayer helps

• Meditation helps

• Chiropractic helps (and is scientifically proven to help humans’ ability to cope with stress)

• Sunshine helps

• Eating whole and nutritious food helps

• Paying attention to my body helps

• Communicating my needs helps

• Laughing with my kids helps

• Focusing on exciting goals helps

• Creativity helps

• Being WITH supportive people helps a LOT

What helps bring down the stress levels in your life? Because when life keeps life-ing, we need to keep going, too. Having people around us to do life with has been one of the most important ways I’ve survived the stresses of the last month. People who know and love our family. People who care about our complete well being. People who reach out and share their own life with us.

It’s all about the people. I love people. They encourage me. They believe in me. They save me.