Last week I was on the phone with one of my sista friends. I asked her how she was doing and she replied “I’m too blessed, to be stressed!” As we continued to talk she revealed that she actually was stressed . There was a lot going on in her life and she didn’t know how to deal with it. As I continued to listen to her I wondered why she would start the conversation saying she was too blessed to be stressed. The more I thought about this I thought of the many times I have masked my stress by telling others the same phrase. It’s like we can’t feel stress, that it in some way makes us weak, ungrateful, or unworthy. I’m blessed and I’m stressed and I’m learning to deal with it. 

I’m sure when people use this phrase they have the best intentions. No one wants to come across as ungrateful or burdensome, in actuality I think if we talked about stress more instead of masking it that would help with the feelings of being blessed. For my church going folks who would say that troubles don’t last always, I’d like to say that when someone is in the midst of trouble it can be hard to see that it won’t last always. I personally don’t think God judges us in our moments when we express our frustrations about the things that are stressing us out. I do believe in those moments He gives us an opportunity to come to Him or sends us the person or people we need to help alleviate our stress. Hear me out, how many times have you been in need of a moment to just breathe, to express yourself, to just be and then BOOM someone calls to check on you, you finally get alone time to think, or a conversation you’ve been needing to have finds its way to you. That’s God sending you stress relief so that you can be blessed. 

We all have a unique opportunity to encourage each other by telling the truth. If you are going through it your story may inspire someone to open up about what is going on in their life and seek help. When we think back on the parables Jesus told those were examples of stressful situations people were going through and how they came out on the other side to be blessed. If we are truly on this journey and wanting to be authentic with people then we can’t be afraid to really talk about what’s going on with us. 

My name is Nanekia Ansari, I am working from home, helping my children with remote learning, keeping my house together, launching a business, maintaining relationships, and learning a new skill…I AM STRESSED and BLESSED!!! What are you going through right now that you could use some stress relief?