Sneaking up on Stress
Okay, forgive me up front for being a little…abstruse with the following. I get uncomfortable, too, when the only way to say something is "Look! Up is down, nil is all, in is out, woohoo!" …But sometimes that’s really the only way to say it.
Anyway, stress. Are you all familiar with stress as an illness, as something that causes symptoms? I really hope not, but here, let’s check: [note to LJ readers: You probably can't see the following poll; it's a Democracy Poll in Wordpress, not an LJ poll. (The former are far superior, if you ask me.) Hop over to puredoxyk.com if you want to answer it!]
Are you familiar with stress as an illness?
I, sadly, am very familiar, both personally and from living with workaholics. Stress is a tough thing to manage, because it’s self-perpetuating, and because, I think, the cure for it is so contradictory.
As an example, by the time I made it to last weekend I was stressed-out to the eyeballs, and not having a very fun time of it. (Er, I’m filing "what’s going on that’s stressful" and "what exactly are my stress-induced symptoms" both under "Stuff Relative Strangers Could Care Less About", if that’s cool.) So I approached the weekend with a War General’s mentality: We WILL Beat This, Men! We WILL Relax!! And then I did a lot of very determined, frowningly deliberate, sitting around and reading and stuff. I resolutely slept in some. I resolutely stayed in my pyjamas as long as was practical, and only allowed myself the chores that had to be done. You get the picture.
Aaaand….Did it help? Not hardly. By last night I was still a wreck, plus I was upset that the weekend was gone and my precious lazy time with it. I felt like I’d wasted a bunch of time and blew off several of my goals, and gained not a thing for it.
So this morning, out of habit and desperation, I got up right on time, and worked on the Ubersleep book. (By the way, it’s about 2/3 of the way there–!) I packed up everything for my considerable errand-load today, ate a good breakfast, made sure I had all my Taiji stuff together, and that I dressed warm enough for the dumpload of snow we got. I even did my exercises, so I don’t have to worry about them later. When I had a few minutes to read, I used them to finish a book that’s been sitting around waiting for me to get to it for way too long.
And you know what? By the time I got in the car to go to work, I felt more relaxed than I had all weekend.
Aristotle says that true happiness only comes from practicing virtue: From doing the Right Things. From having discipline, and not slacking even when slacking is harmless. Aristotle gets a lot of crap for this view (and for other views, some of which crap is deserved); but I have to admit, every once in a while I remember this little fact about a philosophy that predates Christianity by half a milennia and I think, damn. Nice job!
And I think that’s part of what’s hard about stress. Just like some diseases make you itchy, and the last thing you ought to do is scratch, stress makes you weary and overloaded when the last thing you really need is to slack off. Slacking just gives you more to worry about, as the minutes tick by with you in your jammies and all that crap going undone, and if you’re not busy it just gives your brain (which, if you’re a stress maniac, already knows very well how to torture you) all the time in the world to make you miserable.
So, down is up, in is out, and the way out of stress is actually not to "relax" in the operational sense of the word. Vacations and relaxation-days are nice, but in order to work for you they can’t be a reaction to being overstressed; you’re only going to take all that stress with you on vacation! Your time "off" should be structured as much as possible so that you can prepare for it, unload all the stressful tasks before it begins, and really enjoy it.
When you’re symptomatic from overstress, what you really need, if my experience informs me correctly, is careful, measured work, and effort paid to "relaxing" in the mental sense. Because what’s killing you isn’t your schedule, but rather your incorrect patterns of thinking; you’re shorting out. Ceasing all activity will make your mental problems worse. But if you can’t continue your normal activities (which totally happens if things get hairy enough), consider advice like you find in this article, sent to me eerily recently by Aximilation. The article doesn’t advocate sitting on your britches either; it’s cures include exercise, breathing techniques, and–this’ll make you laugh–short afternoon naps. Based on recent evidence, I’m willing to say that sounds right to me.
Stress symptoms are a signal that you need to pay better attention to your thinking, and get back to the best of your routine and activities that you can manage. Aim for virtue, and relaxation will find you all on it’s own.
Now, if you’ll pardon, I have more work to do in order to keep this being a nice relaxing Monday morning–!
19 devoted students of Roshi accepted this page in 0.283 seconds without moving, or saying a word.
My apologies for the editor in me not being able to resist…:
“…sitting on your britches either; it’s cures include exercise, breathing techniques,…” note - “it’s”. *cough*
>_>
I’m curious about the dash/hyphen immediately preceding a few exclamation marks. Enlighten me? 0:-)
I’m guessing it’s some sort of emphasis, some way to mentally enunciate the ending a certain way, but I don’t think I grasp it.
Thanks (in advance, yes. I’m THAT optimistic that you’ll respond.)!
It’s a grammar question, damn you, of *course* I have to respond.
Its/It’s is my biggest automistake. What’s impressive is that I only miss one here and there; you should see when I don’t edit (which is, er, never).
–! …Actually I stole that, stripped it of its dignity and put it to work in a corporate labor camp. ;) I can’t remember if it’s Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett I stole it from, but it was a brilliant conversational device; to wit:
“Did you hear about your daughter and the Internet porn?”
“–!”
Paired with a sentence, as I so artlessly do, it’s supposed to denote a stop due to confusion that becomes shock, or simply from shock that takes the words away. I probably render it sloppily, but hey, it’s a tough thing to render.