Manage Stress in Ten Seconds
Part 2
“Stress level: extreme. It's like she was a jar with the lid screwed on too tight, and inside the jar were pickles, angry pickles, and they were fermenting, and about to explode.” ― Fiona Wood
What to look for in this part:
- Some stress accelerators
- Your child’s perspective
- The #1 mistake parents make that damages their relationship with their child or children and even could damage the child or children
We ended the last part with what to look for in this part. Remember seeing this statement? “How true this statement is personally for you: There’s not been a time in history where the level of overall stress for humanity has been greater than it is today.”
The question that should come to your mind is “why?”. Why at this time? Hasn’t there always been stressors lurking to attack throughout history?
Oh, yeah. Think about cavemen days. Eat or be eaten. What about wars throughout history? Even the winners had significant losses. Or natural disasters like those volcanoes we talked about earlier or the storms or floods or drought or …
I think you get the picture. Stress is a part of life. Stress also attracts stress. Why has it become a faster and faster moving merry-go-round that leaves you depleted of joy, the ability to cope, the sleep you so desperately need, and even the ability not to make the #1 mistake parents make that only makes matters worse between that precious relationship between child and parent? (By the way, that relationship is way more fragile than you could ever imagine!)
Exploding from stress instead of managing stress.
Think again about the volcano and the destructive aftermath. While your children may add to the reasons you are ready to explode, know that a volcano is possibly festering inside them too.
Look at life from their perspective. They have no say in where they go to school, who is pleasant to them or not, who their siblings are, where they live, even if they have the things they need, much less want.
And they can’t control your erupting volcano - only get damaged in the fallout.
At least you are more likely to have some control, at least over some things. Maybe you could choose a different career path, even in the same company if you just absolutely loathe someone directly involved in your space everyday.
Enough examples.
Back to the original question for this part. “How true this statement is personally for you: There’s not been a time in history where the level of overall stress for humanity has been greater than it is today.”
Here’s a few reasons why (and I’m sure you could add considerably to this list)
The question that should come to your mind is “why?”. Why at this time? Hasn’t there always been stressors lurking to attack throughout history?
Oh, yeah. Think about cavemen days. Eat or be eaten. What about wars throughout history? Even the winners had significant losses. Or natural disasters like those volcanoes we talked about earlier or the storms or floods or drought or …
I think you get the picture. Stress is a part of life. Stress also attracts stress. Why has it become a faster and faster moving merry-go-round that leaves you depleted of joy, the ability to cope, the sleep you so desperately need, and even the ability not to make the #1 mistake parents make that only makes matters worse between that precious relationship between child and parent? (By the way, that relationship is way more fragile than you could ever imagine!)
Exploding from stress instead of managing stress.
Think again about the volcano and the destructive aftermath. While your children may add to the reasons you are ready to explode, know that a volcano is possibly festering inside them too.
Look at life from their perspective. They have no say in where they go to school, who is pleasant to them or not, who their siblings are, where they live, even if they have the things they need, much less want.
And they can’t control your erupting volcano - only get damaged in the fallout.
At least you are more likely to have some control, at least over some things. Maybe you could choose a different career path, even in the same company if you just absolutely loathe someone directly involved in your space everyday.
Enough examples.
Back to the original question for this part. “How true this statement is personally for you: There’s not been a time in history where the level of overall stress for humanity has been greater than it is today.”
Here’s a few reasons why (and I’m sure you could add considerably to this list)
- The fast-paced and ever changing Internet.
- The cell phones that tend to stick closer to us than gum stuck on the bottom of our shoes.
- Emails.
- Text messages.
- About a million, give or take one or two, instant news sources and their incessant reiteration of bad news,
- The tenacious thought and sometimes unspoken expectation of “more is better.” Examples include such things as “giving more at work, cleaning your house more, volunteering more, allowing your kids to have more activities because so-and-so does. Why can’t you?”
Eventually, if left unchecked, the volcano inside you will explode and damage everything it touches. Family, job, heath, relationships, etc.
In the next part, you will discover . . .
A volcano exploding is reactive to everything going on inside, much of it unseen to the untrained eye with no seismic equipment.
You can choose proactive steps to manage the stress that comes at you at breakneck speeds from all directions at the same time.
A volcano exploding is reactive to everything going on inside, much of it unseen to the untrained eye with no seismic equipment.
You can choose proactive steps to manage the stress that comes at you at breakneck speeds from all directions at the same time.
Copyright 2022 by Linda L Culbreth. All rights reserved.