Stress is such a debilitating thing and there are many ways to address it in our lives.
A wise man once told me about stress and choices.
We all have choices to make in our lives and we live by those choices. If we work in a job that stresses us out, that is a choice we make. If we don't like the job, we can choose to leave it. We may not like the alternatives (unemployment) but we have that choice.
We can also choose how we think or feel about a situation (cognitive restructuring to use the lingo). Not always an easy task to take a stressful situation and reframe it into something that won't stress you out but CR is an awesome technique. It's kind of the glass half empty/half full thing.
In the last 6 weeks life has thrown a boat-load of shiat at me:
Having twins (boy and girl by the way, yea!!!)
My job was eliminated in the name of "cost containment" (having taken an internal transfer that pays less)
Father been in and out of the hospital twice in three weeks
car died (and subsequent purchace of minivan- see twins above)
Wife in ER (everything was "fine")
furnace/ac dying (and still addressing that one)
I have been stressed to say the least. But then I have to think back to what the wise man told me about choices. Although these events are all stressful, I am choosing to react to them in a way that elevates my stress.
(deep breath, deep breath)
I can't control having twins so why stress over it? Not so much a stressor as an "I still can't believe we are having twins!"
I stressed over the job thing for many weeks because I wasn't getting any responses to my resumes (the internal transfer was always there but I didn't want that job). Once I reevaluated the situaiton, the transfer was one way to reduce my stress because at least I now have a job. Although it is not where I want my career to go, it is a job and it can be a fun job (cognitive restructuring at work).
Can't control my father's health. He is 80 for gawd's sake, he has lived a good, long life. I just have accept that he is going to have failing health and nothing will change that. I have to accept that periodic trips to the ER are going to happen.
The car died at a time when we didn't need it and at a time when we needed to start looking for a minivan anyway. Fortunately for us, it didn't die when the dealer drove it (although it did die on the way to trade it in!)
The furnace/ac thing I am still fuming about! (I am not THAT good at dealing with stress). Two days after buying the minivan it went out. (deep breath, deep breath). We get the estimate on that today. But my mother is willing to give us a no-interest loan, so that is good. And if I miss a payment with her my credit isn't f*cked. LOL
So anyway, it's all about the choices we make. The choices we make in life and the way we choose to view a situation.
I am going to choose to have some ice cream and watch some bad science fiction later (one of my favorite coping strategies).
peace
aeryn
