Okay, so.  This post is not just about these amazing brownies that I made, but also about just the ways I have been pushing past all the stress I am going through at the moment.  But in case anyone happens to be looking at this blog, wanting vegan brownies, here is the easy recipe!

Needed:

Something that  A LOT of people do when they are stressed is stress eat.  DON'T DO THIS!  Of course that's a little ironic for me to say, since I just put up this really good vegan brownie mix.  But you must remember that I did not use oil and eggs, so I took out a little calories!  But seriously while I have been really sad, I have been forcing myself not to fall into the habit of eating unhealthy foods! I know that if I do this that I will just feel worse than I already did, so my number one recommendation is to resist stress eating too too much.  But of course a few unhealthy snacks every once in a while never killed anyone!

Something that has been helping me work through my insane amount of stress is throwing myself into some hobbies.  

• While this may sound silly, something that has always helped me with my PERSONAL stress is throwing myself into my homework and studies.  To me it helps take me out of my mind for a little bit, while some people might not find that helpful...it has always helped me.  
• WORK OUT!  It doesn't matter if you have never been into physical activity, it really does help.  Something I recently tried was ZUMBA!  If you like to dance and want to get your cardio, go to zumba.  It was actually a lot of fun, I went with one of my friends and this girl I recently met and I laughed the entire time.  It was good fun and I was able to forget about everything for a good hour.
• Something that I have always been able to lose myself in is playing the piano.  It has been a little difficult to achieve because for one, I don't have access to the music rooms, and 2 there are only 2 other pianos on campus.  But the other night I went and played, and I was able to focus on the keys long enough to be really happy.  If you have an artistic niche to you, use it to help!  I have always been able to sit at the piano and just play for hours when I am stressed.  I forgot my main book at home, so I was having to play everything by memory.  But if you are like me and don't have any of your stuff, just improvise.  I start by just mixing together some chords and then I go from there.  Another thing that helps is to look up songs you enjoy.  My friend would tell me some song requests and then I would look them up and after a few tries I would start to sing along.  So the piano and singing is something that has been helping me.
• SLEEP, but the right amount!  When my friends were going through hardships, heartbreaks, or just  anything stressful, something that they did was sleep too little or too much.  I really get it, I'm the type of person that doesn't sleep enough.  If I allow myself to think too much I will be up all night.  So in the beginning of this stressful part of my life I barely got ANY sleep, which was really bad.  I would stay up till 1 in the morning looking at pictures, videos, listening to voicemails, I was destroying myself.  Then I would fall asleep, dream about what was stressing me out and then wake up at 3 and not fall back asleep.  So what I have been doing is really keeping myself busy until I can feel myself about to pass out.  Then when I get to that really tired part of the night I put my phone on sleep mode, put on my sleeping mask, send up a little prayer, and force myself to sleep.  The first night of doing this it was really hard, but now my body has gotten into rhythm.  Now I sleep all through the night.

• GET UP AND GET READY!  The past few week I have not been doing this.  I usually dress nice to class, because it makes me feel good, but the past week I have been going to class looking like death.  With me there has never been an in between.  I either look really good or really bad.  In high school people knew when I was having a rough day or week, because I would look like I just walked through war.  This morning is the last morning I am allowing myself to do this.  Because this morning I woke and just thought about everything for 30 minutes, which resulted in an anxiety attack.  So from now on as soon as my alarm goes off I am getting up and getting ready.  I recommend everyone else to do this, don't let something stressful get in the way of you feeling good about yourself.
• Keep your window open!  I have always liked to keep my window open, even though everyone can see inside...hhaa.  But in my opinion it really helps!  When you have it open it allows natural light to come in.  Not trying to get too scientific, but people who live in the north have a higher chance to commit suicide.  This is because the North actually experiences a real winter.  The experience the cold, the winds, and the dark.  So I feel really lucky that I live in a state that is so sunny!  Therefore if God wants to come knocking on my window with sunlight, I'm going to let him!  I have also experienced that I receive less headaches with natural light!

• Lastly is prayer.  If you are not religious, then you can ignore this...or don't.  When I have been going through tough times I turn to prayer.  While sometimes prayer can be frustrating, it really  helps.  Once you accept that God works on his own time, and goes with HIS plan NOT YOURS, then prayer will really help.  For a straight week nearly every hour I prayed the "Heal your Relationship" prayer, but I was so frustrated that NOTHING seemed to be happening right then!  But after I had a heart to heart with myself I understood that God has a plan for me, I just have to be patient.  Once you really understand that God WON'T fail you, and that he loves you, and won't leave you alone, you can really begin to destress.  Of course this may not help everyone, I know that this will get to someone.  While I really want God's plan to coincide with mine, I know that whatever happens is because God knows what is good for me. 

Guys this is really true!