Posted on 22 Aug, 2008 -
Wipe stress out of your life like chalk off a blackboard
Wipe stress out of your life like chalk off a blackboard
Get Smart
Get Sensible
Or just get MAD!
“It’s not THAT hot.” I told my husband and two children while we sat on the hot humid Vaporetto boat bus in Venice, desperately trying to stand by my claim that I loved any kind of heat.
Two minutes later, while cursing the French family at the back and fanning my wilting children with a hat and guide book, my eyes happened to settle on an Italian newspaper article about the horrendous heat wave in Venice and Verona. The words ‘record number of people recovering in hospital’ suddenly made me pine for a cool bed in an air-conditioned hospital.
Yes, I had managed to book an apartment without air conditioning yet again. Yes, it was very small. But surprisingly enough we all seemed to survive and I didn’t get too badly blamed for it. (There was at least a fan and the storm in the middle of the holiday broke the heat temporarily and was nearly as good as a firework display.)
The same, however, was about not to be true around the middle of the three hour delay we had on the M25 thanks to the closing on the QE2 bridge over the Thames. Thankfully, however, I remembered some useful information I’d been reading about dealing with stress and for once my husband chose to listen to my “Buddhist wisdom” instead of opting for raging anger instead.
Coping with stress: Method 1. The Sensible Way
The idea I remembered was that with any kind of stressors you suffer, you have three main options for dealing with it: You can LET GO, look for CHANGE, or ACCEPT it.
As neither camping on the hard shoulder, doing a U-turn or breaking ppen the plum liquor were an option, the only thing we could do was accept the situation and make the most of it.
These three options can also work in any areas of your life. If at the moment, for example, I was over-stressed about having to look after the children for a further three weeks, I could find a way of CHANGING the situation by asking for the help of their grandparents, booking them into a summer club for a few days or teaching them to use a video and hiding under the kitchen table.
If your stress was work-related and to do with your constant attempts to achieve the impossible, for example, you could LET GO of trying to do the impossible.
If you were suffering stress about a certain situation over which you have no control, you could choose perhaps to ACCEPT that things would just take their course and that there was nothing you could do about it.
Coping with stress: Method 2. The Smart Alec Way
Another useful thing to remind yourself about stress is that - although there is normally a stressor involved - stress itself is a feeling you have inside of you. If you can change the way you feel about a situation, you can reduce the amount of stress you suffer.
* Realise that the horror-story style view you have of the situation is not helping.
* Ask yourself if you can see the situation in a different light.
* Make vivid movies in your minds eye of yourself dealing with the situation brilliantly and confidently.
* Ask yourself whether you really NEED to get this stressed? What would it be like if you didn’t get so stressed about it?
Coping with stress: Method 3. The Go Crazy Way!
We all know the feeling of being so stressed and angry that you want to scream or explode. When you get to this point with a situation, one very useful option may be to do just that!
If you need to let off steam before it starts eating you up inside, try waiting ‘till you’re on your own and practising SILENT SCREAMING while beating the air violently. If you can find somewhere really secluded you could even scream outloud.
Other methods include beating your bed with a pillow, dancing wildly to loud music, marching over some hills, taking up kick boxing, or shouting your mind outloud at an imaginary image of your aggressor.
Another option (but don’t tell anyone that it was ME who told you this) might be to just allow yourself to get really mad and shout or snap at somebody for once.
Like the thunder storm we had in Venice, it might just be what is needed to clear the air…
