De-stress Rather than Distress!

Stress is universal! We all have it.  How we manage it determines our physical, mental and emotional well-being.

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 easy, no 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."

So what stresses or worries are you carrying around? Comment below to share your experiences or to offer suggestions which have worked for you to manage these worries.

One way of letting go is to determine your personal ability to change or control the dynamics of the things you worry about or that stress you out. If you have the power to change the situation, use the resources that you already have, accept help from others, or even be creative and experiment with different ways of responding. Do something different - and stop worrying! 

If the situations which stress you seem out of your control, let go of them - and save your energy for those things you can actually fix.

Please feel free to forward this blog to anyone you think would enjoy or benefit from these conversations.