How to Keep Stress at Bay as a Pro Cheerleader or Dancer

If we said that pursuing and living the pro cheer life is a carefree and easygoing journey, we’d be lying to you. Well, stress is part of life but being an aspiring or current pro cheerleader makes it more challenging to handle.

The worst part is that when you’re under stress, you get locked in a negative train of thought instead of looking for solutions to fix your problems. Don’t worry. In this article, you’ll know the typical causes of stress in your career as a pro cheerleader/dancer, how to manage them, and be one of the best in the industry.

What Are Some of the Factors That May Cause Stress in Your Pro Cheer and Dance Career?

1. Commitments to diet and food plans

Achieving a fit body and staying that way is essential in the pro cheerleading profession. In order to achieve that, following diet and food plans are important. But these diet plans often restrict you from eating your favorite and comfort foods.

2. Fear and anxiety of failed expectations

Everyone is afraid of failing to achieve their dreams, big or small. As a pro cheer community member, you get scared and anxious about the thought of failing an audition or getting removed from the squad due to not performing your duties well.

3. Hectic schedules

Pro cheerleaders live busy lives. There are career women, business owners, students, and full-time mothers. It’s no surprise that they sometimes skip dance practices and workout sessions to prioritize non-pro cheer tasks. This leads to plenty of stressful catching-ups.

4. The need to impress colleagues and superiors

For pro cheer sisters who have the time to practice and workout, they still aren’t free from the stress of not being able to be on par with squadmates or meet their coach’s expectations.

5. Multitude of responsibilities at home, work, and pro cheer career

As a continuation to #4, doing all home, work, and pro cheer tasks causes stress by not giving you the time to pursue your personal interests.

5 Ways to Keep Stress at Bay

The causes of stress mentioned above might make you feel hopeless or discouraged in continuing the pro cheer journey. But every problem has a solution. Here are 5 things you can do to manage your stress as a dancer/pro cheerleader.

1. Unwind every weekend

Aim to exercise at least once on all weekdays and finish all your pro cheer tasks before Saturday. This will give you time to unwind such as going on a trip, family bonding, or tend to your hobbies.

2. Accept that there are some things out of your control

If you failed to do one or more tasks at home, work, for audition preparation, or as a squad member, don’t brood. Instead, accept that you ran out of time. Then, move on and reschedule what you weren’t able to do for the next day or week.

3. Only accept tasks that you can do at the moment

The main cause for failing your to-dos is including them in your list of tasks when you clearly know it’s impossible to fulfill them. Take things one at a time. If you’re preoccupied at work, home, or for squad activities, ask your partner or a colleague to fill in for you. Otherwise, leave the pending tasks and tend to them once you have the time.

4. Seek social support

Never keep all your stresses to yourself. Tell a family member, friend, or colleague about them. Seek help and don’t refuse a helping hand if they offer it first. No matter how strong or capable we think we are in dealing with problems and responsibilities, we will get tired eventually.

5. Have a cheat meal/day

Regarding the stress caused by diets and food plans, it’s great to have a cheat meal or day to satisfy your cravings. Cheat meals/days also help jumpstart your metabolism that has been used to eating healthily.

The best ways for keeping stress at bay are maintaining a positive attitude and avoiding rushing things. You also need to be a good manager of your time and actions. That includes knowing to set aside non-essential tasks and prioritizing the urgent ones. Practice doing all of these and you’ll be able to be a great pro cheerleader, mother, career woman, business owner, or student in no time.

Get more tips for living a better pro cheerleader’s life here!

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