Things get a little heated around here sometimes, and (for me at least) it's important to keep things in perspective if we're going to keep our sanity. One of my coworkers quit 4 or 5 months ago and the powers that be have yet to replace him, so things have been a little stressful at work for me - to say the least.
Add to that the things we hear in the so-called news each day and I end up pretty pissed-off by the time I get home to my family at the end of the day. It's especially bad if I listen to one of my favorite on-air radio personalities - Randi Rhodes. She gets me fired-up like no else can - sometimes that's not such a good thing.
A friend sent me the following a while back & I just stumbled accross it again this morning. I thought it might be worth sharing here as a stepping off point to see how the rest of us deal with stress, and all the shit coming out of DC. Enjoy...
Stress Management
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water? "
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g".
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. "
"If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. "
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "
"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. "
"Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!
Of course this could apply to whatever weight you might be carrying at the moment, whether's it's personal, work-related, or the news of the day.
And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
*Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from a box of crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
" A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour"
I would add a couple more to the list of how I handle stress...
Participating in TV-Turnoff week - no electronic media or news of any kind. You end up talking more with those you love, and feel incredibly relaxed at the end of the week.
Remembering that I'm the only person I can really change. Others tend to react unpleasantly if I back them into a corner in my attempt to change them.