Water. Drink lots of it.
Alcohol. Avoid it. Any other recreational drugs, avoid, at least for the next few months.
Walking. Do it. Listen to librivox recordings of public domain stuff that’s related to your field. Listen to music. Listen to books you’ve always meant to read.
Meditate. I downloaded a bunch from meditation oasis on iTunes.
Have another glass of water.
Partake in social interactions that you enjoy. Skip the ones that stress you out. Keep this in mind when derby starts. If its not fun, you have my permission to quit. You do not have my permission to beat yourself up about quitting. Check your health insurance. It may not cover injuries from a sport you know carries a risk of brain and bone damage. (they’ll come up with any reason not to pay a claim. Just finding our that you joined derby would be enough for some ins companies to deny. And trust me, they look.)
Learn to paint your nails or make face masks or bath bombs or whatever girly pampering thing you love that costs a kazillion dollars to maintain. Stop if it’s not fun. Go to Marshall’s or Ross and buy a few pairs of silly panties. Also check out the bra section, if you’re like most women, well, like me anyway, a fresh bra can do wonders for your outlook.
Light a candle while you eat your dinner. Or breakfast. Give your attention fully to as many meals as you can. Avoid eating in cars and study carrels and while walking.
Where’s that water? Have some more.
Have regular progress meeting with advisors and professors.
Schedule regular study/writing/accountability time with other people in your program.
Finally, the hardest one. Feel the pain and stress of all of this completely for 20 minutes a day. Schedule it in. That time is inviolate, but it will also mean any time the stress comes up, tell yourself, “I am allowed to worry/hurt/be angry about this, but it’s going to have to wait until [time] because right now I am enjoying my run/sacoring my dinner/getting ready to call my friend in Alaska.”
Ok, for real finally. Cry. Have a great big snotty cry. Cry some more. Maybe give yourself an hour for that. Then, deep breaths, a hot (or cool) shower. Jammies. Cup of hot cocoa or whatever soothing ritual you want.
and if you decide south Florida sounds good? Let me know! I’ll help you sort out some gun things to do.