Let These 3 Quotes Guide You Through Stressful Times

Adrian S. Potter
3 min readMar 19, 2022

Whatever is kicking your butt right now is temporary.

Photo by Wallace Chuck from Pexels

Stress can be emotional air pollution. It is all around and impossible to avoid inhaling it.

Stress feels devastating when you’re swimming through the thick of thin things, balancing too many tasks at work, dealing with the demands of parenthood, or caring for others while ignoring your needs.

Sometimes you need reminders that, like The Shawshank Redemption, you can crawl through life’s bullshit and somehow come out clean on the other side. Tough times eventually pass.

Whatever is kicking your butt right now is temporary, while the flexibility and fortitude that you’re building will remain with you.

Below I’ve rounded up three quotes to refer to during moments of anxiety and tension. They offer assurances that no matter how stressful things seem now, tomorrow might provide the certainty and clarity you crave.

“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” — Najwa Zebian

It’s human nature to hold onto parts of the past. But you get to select what moments you carry.

Most people, unfortunately, choose to lug around the cargo of past traumas or current insecurities.

Those things become mountains on your back. They are heavy items that happened in the past. Those melancholy milestones will always remain.

The longer you carry weight, the heavier it becomes.

You cannot control the crap that you faced in the past. You might not have the tools to manage your feelings about these events, either. But instead of hauling them with you, learn to rise and climb them.

And once you’ve reached the summit of your ascent towards healing, look down at your pain and admire how far you’ve traveled to rise above it. It’s empowering to view stress in this way.

Photo by Alex Green from Pexels

“I think that we have to realize that times of stress are also…

Adrian S. Potter

Antisocial Extrovert · Writer and Poet, Engineer, Consultant, Public Speaker · Writing about self-improvement, gratitude, and creativity · www.adrianspotter.com