The Five Senses of Stress

Issue No. 5: Stressed Out!
Words - Sally Steele Corbett

“It tastes like wanting to eat everything in sight, the overwhelming desire to consume even when I’m not hungry. Like I’ll never be full or satisfied and like I can’t fight off cravings.

It sounds like clipped words, an annoyed tone of voice, a total lack of patience when talking to my students, my mom, my husband. An internal monologue of all the ways I’ve failed and will continue to fail because I can’t seem to accomplish a single thing.

It looks like a messy house, relationships that get ignored and neglected, an email inbox that hasn’t been looked at in weeks and nights spent sitting at the kitchen table with tired eyes and despair in my heart. 

It smells like fast food when there’s been no time to shop or motivation to cook or a bathroom that desperately needs to be cleaned if only there was time to clean it.

It feels like sleepless nights and mornings where I struggle to stay awake. Like I’m hanging by a thread most days. I’m wound so tightly that I worry I may snap.