Dealing With Stress
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g - 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 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 to me." He continued, "that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, the burden becomes increasingly heavy, and we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while, rest before holding it again. When we are 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 when you are rested. Life is short - learn how to enjoy it!"


He then shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:


* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them..


* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled to their Maker!


* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.


* Accept that some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue..


* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.


* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because you won't have a leg to stand on..


* The second mouse gets the cheese..


* When everything is coming your way, the odds are that you're in the wrong lane!



I have just been reading some articles on managing stress in everyday life, and found the above article interesting (just can't find the link where it came from). I am tryng to learn how to leave the days burdens at work. I have found in the last couple of weeks the level of stress I have been dealing with has been pushing me to breaking point, mainly at work, but then it has a flow on effect to my life too. In the last two weeks, I have had two serious breakdowns at work, crying and in one instance shaking so badly a collleague had to remove me from the office and take me out for a coffee to calm me down. Then there was once instance where I wanted to leap over the counter and strangle a client, but still had the good sense to restrain myself.

I just wondered if anyone had any tips for relieving stress and relaxing? I just figure it is not all that healthy for me to continue on this path and for my own wellbeing I should do something about it now.

STRESS (strĕs) noun - The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living shit out of some a**hole who desperately deserves it.

Exercise. Exercise releases endorphins (happy makers!). A punching bag can be a great stress reliever. So can a squash ball.
Meditation. A great way of dreaming up some delightfully innovative cruel and unusual methods of taking revenge on the cause(s) of stress.
Tree strangling. Find a poor defenceless little tree and choke the living daylights out of it.
Have a timeout. Go make a coffee. While the kettle's boiling stand still, close your eyes and do nothing except wait.
Talk to someone. Not to find a solution necessarily, but someone you can just bitch to and get it off your chest.

Personally I favour beating the crap out of something. It provides an outlet to channel all the angers and frustrations



Mick