Stressed?

[Lineareagle]

May have been seen before but worth repeating in these troubling times.

 

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 8oz. To 20oz.

 

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/life 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!

[russell_bynum]

May have been seen before but worth repeating in these troubling times.

 

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 8oz. To 20oz.

 

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/life 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!

 

Well that's helpful.

 

Most of the time, the things that cause stress will just compound and get worse if you ignore them for a while.

 

 

[OoPEZoO]

Yeah, well. The Dude abides.

[russell_bynum]

Yeah, well. The Dude abides.

 

[Lets_Play_Two]

Well that's helpful.

 

Most of the time, the things that cause stress will just compound and get worse if you ignore them for a while.

 

 

It has more to do with letting go of what you can do nothing about at the time. If you worry about something you cannot deal with right now it only causes stress. Wake up in the middle of the night worrying about tomorrow's duties and the stress of being able to do nothing about tomorrow will keep you awake.

[Hermes]

One thing that helped me a lot in a stressful IT Management job, was to ask myself in ticklish situations 'What's the worse that can happen?'.

Almost always, the worse case scenario, when clearly deliniated, was not deserving of being so stressed. That realization then lead to clear and unemotional thinking and a path around the stressful issue.

As an aside, and maybe your bosses are not like mine were, but staying cool under stress, discouraged the buggers from riding you deeper into the ground.

It also helps at all times, to have a parachute ready, e.g. a fall-back position.

[KDeline]

If it were only that easy.

[Joel]

This strikes me as another thing about the human mind that is simple in concept, but not necessarily easy for many people to execute. Particularly in light of the way the subconscious mind works. For example, I can "put down" my stress easily enough to enjoy dinner and get to sleep quickly almost every night, without chemical intervention, only to have that stress spring back into action if I happen to wake up after a few hours. I didn't consciously choose to "pick it up" then, and putting it back down at that point isn't easy.

 

Similarly, nearly everyone who wants to lose weight knows they could, if they just ate better and exercised more. Simple? Yes. Easy? If so, why would obesity persist despite a the large industry that has grown up around weight loss?

 

Our brains are amazing things.

[Paul Mihalka]

In my first life I was employee of corporations. (Exxon, IBM, General Electrics, etc.) I was subject to the usual higher management BS. I was paid fairly well. In my mind I decided that I'm getting paid half for what I do and half for taking/handling the BS. With the notion that I was getting paid for it, I just handled it, without mental stress or aggravation.

[John Ranalletta]

There are personality types who are prone to worry about everything. The counsel you cite does not work for them. Drugs help.

 

Additionally, it's helpful to separate people who constantly worry about what can (or did) go wrong from the type of concentration that comes from someone who is possessed by the pursuit of an objective. Asking that person to "let go" is usually fruitless.