A real-life look at what stress management looks like woven into concerts, cold plunges, rocket launches, and magical beach nights.
At the beginning of April, my husband Brian and I looked at each other and said something that now feels hilarious in hindsight: “This month is going to be so chill. We don’t really have that much going on.”
The universe heard that and absolutely lost it.
What followed was one of the most full, beautiful, chaotic, joyful, and genuinely memorable months I can remember in a long time (and it’s not even over yet). Since it’s National Stress Awareness Month, I got to live the principles I teach in real time through planned things, surprise things, and things that had no business being as magical as they were.
Stress management is not what you do when life gets hard. It’s how you build your life so that hard things don’t take you all the way out.
This is not a listicle of tips you already know. This is my April in stories. Thirty moments and ideas, big and small, that either reduced my stress, regulated my nervous system, or reminded me why I do this work. I hope at least a few of them feel like permission to curate your own life, try something new or do something you’ve been putting off.
1. Throwing dreams in the ocean.
This one technically happened in late March, but it set the tone for everything that followed so it gets to be first.
We were celebrating my friend Alexa turning 30. Her birthday fell right around a new moon, and our friend Kennedy showed up to the beach with water soluble paper — the kind that dissolves in water — so Alexa could write down her dreams and hand them to the universe. (Water soluble, because we’re dreamers, not litterbugs.)
We all did it. The sun was setting in that ridiculous Florida way, all orange and gold. There was a tiny crescent moon just visible in the sky. We started writing individually, then figured out that using each other’s backs as writing surfaces was, in fact, the way. A little dream-writing train on the beach at sunset.
The stress relief here is real: writing down what you want and releasing control of how it happens is one of the most grounding things you can do. Stress keeps your vision small. Joy blows it wide open. That night reminded me of both.
2. Be completely unserious about serious things.
April 1st, Stress Awareness Month officially begins. My contribution was a reel of Brian and me at Clif Family Winery, where Brian surprised me by getting our host to slip in Popstar by Drake in the middle of a fancy lunch to make me laugh. Brian and I love to joke with each other and laugh together pretty much every day.
Being unserious is genuinely a stress management strategy. It signals to your nervous system that you are safe enough to play.
3. Practice gratitude like it’s a game, not a chore.
Brian and I like to do a three-things check-in. Just three things we’re grateful for, said out loud, to each other. It takes two minutes and it genuinely shifts the energy of the day.
When I’m feeling ambitious I’ll go for 25 or 50 or even 100. Not because I have to, but because by the time you hit number 47 your brain has completely forgotten what it was stressed about. Gratitude doesn’t cancel hard things. It just reminds your brain that good things are happening at the same time.
Try this for a few days and see how it goes. You’ll thank me later.
4. Do uncomfortable things on purpose.
I love to cold plunge.
The cold water is not the point. The point is that doing scary things on purpose builds the muscle of being okay with discomfort. And when that muscle is strong? Everyday stress stops having so much power over you. I did this one with Tina from Evergreen Links and Leisure over coffee while we planned our golf collab. That’s what a good planning session looks like.
5. Surprise date nights.
Brian got off work early one evening and surprised me with a sunset at Salt Shack. No agenda, no plans, just showing up present for an unexpected slice of ordinary magic.
For recovering overachievers: let yourself receive the spontaneous good thing. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to schedule it. Sometimes you just get to sit at the waterfront with your person and watch the sky turn pink and feel like enough. The universe also gave us a fun surprise in the form of a tiny front row parking spot just big enough for the Spark to fit!
6. Rocket launch from the parking deck.
The Artemis II launch happened and we watched it from the rooftop parking deck of our apartment complex with about 30 neighbors. I had the livestream from NASA on my iPad counting down for launch. Right after liftoff across the state, we all looked up and could see it in the sky! It was so magical and awe-inspiring.
The stress management principle here is novelty. Our nervous systems crave new inputs. Standing outside at night with neighbors, all of you craning your necks at the same piece of sky, is a genuinely regulating experience. Awe is free and available at all times. Following the journey of Artemis II was so incredible. The new pictures of the moon!!!
7. Taking PTO to play in the water.
We kayaked at Silver Springs State Park. Manatees, gators, birds, turtles, ducks, family. I posted a reel over that gorgeous clear spring water with the caption: “When I say I want less screen time, this is what I mean.” I want more life spent frolicking.
Nature is a nervous system reset. The science is real and I don’t need to explain it. You already know. You’re just not doing it enough.
8. Golf for the nature, not the score.
My husband asks me how I played and I tell him how many cool birds I saw on the course. I’m definitely in it for the nature. This month I saw wild parrots and a soft-shell turtle while golfing and got so stoked.
Finding the version of an activity that actually lights you up rather than stresses you out is the whole game. You don’t have to do it the way everyone else does it.
9. Dancing to live music.
Boys Like Girls was in Tampa last week for the 20th anniversary of their self-titled album and the 17th anniversary of their album Love Drunk. The played both albums from front to back and it was such a blast. We saw them last year at When We Were Young in Las Vegas but before that it had been over a decade since I saw them live! My best friend Julie and I did a meet and greet with them in Houston back in 2010.
I think a big part of happiness in adult life is doing things that would have make your childhood and teenage self stoked. Dancing around to pop punk music is definitely one of those things for me. If I could tell 18 year old me she would get to see Boys Like Girls again 16 years in the future in Tampa, FL with the love of her life dancing next to her, she would definitely be stoked.
10. Brain dumps for clarity.
My brain is not a storage unit. Every thought I’m trying to hold in my head is taking up processing power that could be used for enjoying my life. So when I start to get overwhelmed and at (or over) capacity, I have a technique to get it all out. I get out a notebook and pen and write down everything bouncing around in my brain – big and small. The act of externalizing clears the mental cache.
I did this multiple times in April. Before the work trip to LA. Before the book fair. After a big week. It works every time.
11. Less Stressed at Work
I was in LA for a work trip and led a stress management workshop with my coworkers. Teaching is regulating. There’s something that happens when I get to see other people have a lightbulb moment around something I’ve built my life around — it fills me up in a way that social media engagement never quite does. As much as I love working from home, it was so nice to connect with co-workers in person and get to know them better.
12. Eating fun foods and getting creative.
April cooking and food highlights: sous vide ribs. Seafood boil. Tomahawk wagyu. Jalapeno popper burgers. Fancy dumpling ramen. Takeout buffet night with nachos, pizza, and Chinese food on the same table because we’re adults and no one can stop us. Wing Wednesday.
Cooking and eating with people you love is sensory, present-moment, creative, and grounding. Food is medicine. Especially the wagyu. My aunt and uncle were with us for the wagyu and said it was some of the best steak they have ever had!
13. Focusing on what I want, not what I’m afraid of.
Stress is, at its core, a focus problem. It is the nervous system running threat detection on repeat. The antidote is not pretending threats don’t exist — it’s actively training your attention toward what you’re building, what you want, what’s good. It is easy to focus your brain on all the things you don’t want to happen or what you are worried about. It takes effort to train your brain to shift toward the positive but it’s so much more fun.
What do you actually want your life to feel like? Start there.
14. Let friends and family come to you.
April involved a revolving door of people I love coming to visit. This used to feel overwhelming to me — the logistics, the hosting, the performing. This year it just felt like joy. It was a little chaotic and involved a lot of on the fly planning to go with the flow but the laughter and connection were great.
That’s what happens when you’ve done enough nervous system work. The same stimulus that used to send you into overdrive just becomes a thing you’re happy about. That’s the goal. Not the absence of full plates, but a different relationship to them.
15. Go to disco bingo.
The Disco Babes bingo brunch at bartaco was a blast as always. My cousin and her husband came to join us to see my aunt an uncle visiting from TX. When we sat down at the table, I told everyone that one of was going to win that day. My uncle won the second round!! There were actually three people that got bingo that round so he did the tiebreaker runway strut competition and brought the whole room to its feet. That’s the kind of memory that lives rent-free for years. It was epic!
Real, ridiculous, embodied joy with people who make you feel like yourself is some of the best medicine. That’s the stuff that regulates your nervous system more than any breath work I’ve ever taught.
16. Moving my body for joy, not punishment.
Golf. Kayaking. Dancing in hotel rooms and concerts. Walking Naboo. None of these were “workouts.” All of them moved my body, lifted my mood, and gave my nervous system a break from desk energy.
Movement as joy is sustainable. Movement as penance is not.
17. Auditing digital + physical space.
I did a deep clean and reorganization of my physical space this month and felt the shift immediately. Outer order, inner calm is genuinely a thing. The same is true for my inbox, algorithm, and phone.
What you look at all day shapes your nervous system. Curate accordingly.
18. Get puppy therapy.
I got meet sweet little Rolo and she cuddled up right in my lap. I am not going to pretend this was not a significant stress relief moment. Physical contact with a warm, wiggly creature who loves you unconditionally is science. Oxytocin. Cortisol reduction. All of it real.
Also, puppies are hilarious and laughter is free.
19. Let someone pick you up from the airport with flowers.
Brian picked me up from the airport after the LA trip with flowers. I got a little emotional. Not because I was sad, but because being received like that — like my return is worth celebrating — is deeply regulating.
Recovering overachievers: let people love you on your way in, not just on your way out.
20. Selling a house is wild.
We made moves toward getting our house in Raleigh sold this month. This is honestly super stressful — real estate, money, big decisions, and lots of logistics. We are handling it one step at a time, making decisions from clarity rather than panic, and keeping the big picture in focus.
Control what you can. Release what you can’t. Repeat indefinitely. I’ll talk more about this one once it’s all done!
21. Show up at a book fair in a sparkly dress.
The Oxford Exchange Book Fair is magical every year. This was my third year to have a table and this time with TWO books! Book people are some of my favorite types of people. It’s such a fun night getting to meet readers and fellow authors. I handed out neon bookmarks with stress relief techniques on them. Some crowd faves were the spicy ones like “Calm the f*ck down” and “Put it in the f*ck it bucket.” One gentleman glanced down and saw that last one and busted out laughing. I told him my book was already working. 😉
If you missed it and want to grab your own copy of my books, grab them here – Let’s Be Less Stressed + Magic Moments! I’ll also deliver locally in Tampa!
22. Collaborate with people with good energy.
The golf collab with Tina from Evergreen Links and Leisure came together because we share a genuine love for the game and a similar vibe. Easy. Aligned. Fun. The planning session was a cold plunge and coffee. That tells you everything you need to know.
Forced collaboration is exhausting. Aligned collaboration is energizing. Know the difference. For the Spring Social we had 9 ladies play a fun round of golf, make new friends and socialize afterwards with Masters themed snacks. Everyone walked away with a fun bookmark, a tiny plastic animal and a smile on their face.
23. Liking myself a little more each month.
This is a slow burn one. I have been doing this work for years and the clearest measure of progress is not my follower count or my bank account. It’s how much I actually like the person I am when I’m by myself, at 7pm on a Tuesday, no plans, no performance.
That number keeps going up. I think about that a lot. I feel more confident than ever that I’m living the life I want to live. The flow and ease (in the midst of the chaos) are actually a little mind-blowing sometimes. I’m handling things way better that past me would have and that’s pretty awesome to recognize.
24. Social media blackout day.
I had a beach day mid-April and took a full day off from posting, scrolling, and performing. The world did not end. My business did not collapse. My nervous system exhaled.
Rest is not a reward for finishing everything. It’s a strategy for staying in it long-term. Take the blackout day. I actually have giant black boxes on the calendar one day a month already planned for the rest of the year. If I forget or need to move it, I’ll reschedule but make sure to get one in.
25. Appreciating body for what it does, not how it looks.
My body kayaked at Silver Springs. It cold plunged. It danced. It stood on a beach at sunset writing dreams on water soluble paper. It ate a tomahawk wagyu and felt truly alive about it. It played a round of golf where I tied for least amounts of putts in the group.
Body appreciation is a radical stress management tool because so much of our stress lives in the belief that we’re not enough as-is. This has taken me years of adjusting my self-talk to not say mean things to my body. I’d much rather move through this life appreciating the meat suit than constantly telling it that it is anything but beautiful.
What if your body was already doing an incredible job?
26. Let the new moon do its thing.
The new moon in April was a big one with a lot of cosmic astrology things happening. I don’t know a ton about it all but I’m definitely a little woo woo. New moons are for planting seeds. For getting clear on what you’re calling in. For trusting something bigger than your to-do list.
You don’t have to be woo to appreciate a built-in monthly invitation to slow down and get intentional. I’ll take every one I can get.
27. Win at the casino after a concert.
Boys Like Girls live. Then the casino. Then winning. I have nothing profound to add here. Sometimes the universe just delivers and your job is to receive it with good vibes and zero guilt. Shoutout to my amazing husband for all the good luck that night. It was such a blast. He bet 11 on roulette (because we wish on 11:11) and it HIT!!!! We we absolutely stoked.
Fun is not frivolous. It is literally medicine. I wrote a whole book about this. I stand by every word.
28. Create more than you consume.
In April I switched from going live every day to reels and posts, because that’s what the data said was working. That pivot — from a plan I’d committed to, to what was actually serving the community — required trusting my gut over my original agenda.
Responding instead of initiating. Less forcing, more flowing. The posts got better. The engagement went up. My stress went down. Classic Generator energy.
29. You cannot go back. You can only move forward.
April had moments that didn’t go as planned. I didn’t have the energy to plan a workshop I was going to so it got postponed. Some content didn’t land. There were days I didn’t do all the things I said I would do. None of that is the end of the story.
You cannot go back and change what happened. You absolutely can decide what comes next. That’s it. That’s the whole tip. If you remember anything from this blog, make it this one. It is the best stress reframe of them all. From this very moment, what do you want to do next?
30. Float.
My word of the year is Float. Manatee energy. Unbothered. Good vibes. Riding the waves instead of fighting them.
April was a lot. It was also, genuinely, one of the best months I can remember. Not because everything was perfect — it wasn’t — but because I moved through it with more ease than I would have three years ago. That’s the work. That’s what less stressed actually looks like in a full life.
She’s being constructed. One wave at a time.
A NOTE ON APRIL
I started this month planning to go live every single day. I pivoted to reels and posts because that’s what was actually landing with you. The highest-performing content this month wasn’t the stress tips. It was the rocket launch, the beach at sunset, the disco bingo, the ocean dreams. It was me just living my life and trusting that the wellness principles I believe in would show up organically in the stories.
That’s the actual lesson of National Stress Awareness Month: stress management is not a category of content. It’s a way of being in the world. When it’s working, it looks like a really good April.
Want to go deeper?
Let’s Be Less Stressed: 365 Bite-Sized Boosts for a Softer, Happier Life has a tip for every day of the year — including quite a few that showed up in this blog. Grab your copy on Amazon here.
If you want to work through your own stress one-on-one, email me to ask about an SOS Strategy Session. It’s one hour, totally worth it, and we will get you clear. Because stress isn’t one sized fits all, if you want to work with me, we can curate a program specifically designed for your needs and personality! My email is brigid@vibrantbadass.com.
Thanks for being here for Stress Awareness Month. I hope something in this list made you feel seen, gave you permission for a thing you’ve been putting off, or at the very least made you want to go find some water soluble paper.
May is going to be good. I can feel it.
Less stress, more fun — always.
xo Brigid