I am the type of person that stresses about literally everything. I stress about school, work, friendships, relationships, and even dumb stuff like what I’m going to wear or how I need to clean the house.

What I’m coming to realize, though, is that stress is a mental illusion.

The solution seems simple: stop stressing. In reality, we can’t really do that. However, what we can do is limit our stress to things worth stressing about.

While we can’t necessarily choose whether or not to be stressed, you can choose how to handle certain situations. When an instance occurs and you begin to feel stressed out, try your best to think about things more logically. Your mind is a very powerful thing and you can easily trigger an unnecessary panic attack by freaking out over things that don’t need to be stressed about.

I am trying to take my own advice by thinking to myself what I could be doing with all the time I spend stressing and overthinking. With all the time stress consumes your body, you could be doing things you actually enjoy or will better your situation.

The five by five rule comes to play in this situation. “If it won’t matter in five years, don’t spend more than five minutes stressing about it.”

For instance, things like college applications and SATs are actually worth stressing about because what college you get into depends on those things and your career depends on what college you go to.

On the contrary, small things (such as previously mentioned: clothes) will not matter in about a day, let alone 5 years from now. So save all your stress build up for the things that matter.