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Recent Columns
The Stress Mess
We've Gotten Ourselves in One Hell of a Pickle
Original Publication Date:
October 2009
-Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
Pz's Pointers on Stress and Getting Out of the Pickle We're In
1. Redefine your take on stress
Start today to begin to think of stress through a different prism. Begin to think of stress as just a word without all that power we've attached to it. Take the power away from 'stress' and give it over to whom it rightfully belongs—you. We have become so conditioned in this modern age to assume stress and anxiety are part of the human experience and are normal and unavoidable. This is a deep-rooted notion that has been perpetuated in recent times. Think about how we use stress in our lives. Those catch-all feelings of anxiety and stress are choices each of us make in order to handle or cope with unpleasant thoughts or events. We have become used to embracing the stressful thoughts rather than pushing them aside for good ones. I know this sounds simplistic, but the truth is you can't be in that familiar place of stress if you're in a state of gratitude. They can't occupy the same thought-space simultaneously, so why not choose positive, uplifting thoughts over the stressful ones. You don't know unless you try, so give it a try. Each time you find yourself going to embrace that stress, switch gears and allow yourself to think other thoughts. Stop labeling and identifying people and situations as being stressed.
2. Stressful thoughts are no more real than un-stressful thoughts
A shift in your thinking about stress may be a new concept and difficult to grasp at first. We have a stress-management mentality that goes along with the times. If you can, open your mind to the possibility that stress is not something that happens to us but something that takes place from within on our own. Stress is the word we have come to associate with all our conflicts and issues. We want relief from the problem we're having and not from the abstract concept of the word stress. The problem is what needs solving, not the suffering of the stress. We, as individuals and as a country, do have problems. We'll get much further towards finding real, lasting solutions to those problems if we stop reacting and responding like victims through that typical stress way of thinking.
3. Poor Michael, Poor Us
We could never pretend to know or understand the complexities of the life Michael Jackson chose to live. What we do know is Michael was living in a world fraught with anxiety and pain where drugs seemed to play a major role. He could afford the doctors who would legally prescribe and administer any number of medications to help him get through the problems at hand—notice I said problems and not stress. He created a stress mess in his corner of the world, got in a pickle, and now he's gone. Michael Jackson didn't have to die, but he did. There are lessons in his dying if we choose to see them. Beyond his legacy as a brilliant entertainer, Michael, the human being, can help us to look at the personal challenges we face and decide how to better deal with them or not. We're a nation numbed by drugs of many sorts. We're constantly bombarded from every side with a message that reminds us how depressed we are and how much stress life hands us and how easy it is to handle that stress if only we take this or that little pill. We've become a land of legal pill poppers: from young children who no longer can listen, or pay attention or learn without the aid of a pill; or to men and women trying to pay bills and keep jobs and hold relationships and families together and who can't manage without resorting to something in a bottle. One pill leads to another and the next thing you know you come to depend on that pill and that dependency becomes one more layer of your list of problems that still aren't solved. Problems are real and real solutions exist, we just won't find answers unless we stop looking out and start to look within.
Reader Comments
spike says...
it has been my experience that, not matter where the stress is it spills over to the other areas. I first find the root of the stress/problem, then research how others fix the emotional side. Remember exercise regularly, this is a MUST. Good luck
Pz Hopkins says...
First, identify exactly what is triggering your reaction we call stress. Tackle those problems 1 @ a time & don't lump them 2together. Come up with solutions that might mean making tough choices. When the stressful impulse strikes @ home do anything 2 interrupt it. Don't entertain it for a second.~
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stressed at work says...
These days I always feel stressed at work and it seems to be spilling out into my home life. Is there a way I can stop doing that?