Everyone eventually will live with some kind of stress in their lives. We all handle it differently. They say stress is the cause of most diseases and I believe it. I am presently going through a very stressful situation in my life and I can feel the result of it in my body. When I think back on my life, I realize I have had many, many stressful situations. Thank goodness they were not all at the same time! It seems to me that your body says, "I know you are weak right now so time to let something attack you."
When I am stressed or worried I write out a list of all the things I could or need to do to get rid of it. Can I do them? No, not always. Sometimes.....more times than not, it is out of my control. I pray about it and put it in God's hands and then make an effort not to worry. Does that work? Often it does. Not always. Not always the way I expect or want it to. Sometimes I have to wait longer and I keep on praying. Other times my prayer is answered but not exactly in the way I hoped. Yet after a period of time it turned out way better than I had hoped. Every cloud has a silver lining!
Another thing I do when I have a burden to bear or on my mind is to look around and see how many others are so much worse than I am. There is always someone worse off. I have a comfortable home, food to eat and everything I need. I am not in need of anything really. Until I moved here, I could not say that. So I try not to complain to anyone about any problem I have presently. Life is funny that way. Once you make a change then those other problems you had seem to drift away or not be important any longer.
Problems that sneak up on you are hard to address when in the beginning you don't see them. Did you ever notice something then put it out of your mind to have it become a big problem later on? Yes, that is the kind of problem I am talking about. Those are the types of problems I seem to have all of the time. If I had recognized it for what it was in the beginning, it would not be quite so bad presently. Yet I do that over and over through out my whole life.
So what do I do about it besides pray? I make a list of the problems I am facing and then arrange them in order of importance. Actually not really importance, since every one of them is important but in order of which one absolutely must be done first. It is like when you are remodeling a room on your home and you find the ceiling or walls are rotten and have to be completely rebuilt before you can get to the remodeling project you were so excited about. I had that happen so I know what I am talking about.
Once you have a plan of action, it decreases your stress a bit. Then start working on your list and doing the things you need to do. A bad one for me is making appointments and telephone calls. I have always had a phobia of making telephone calls and I know that sounds funny since I worked as a receptionist in two accounting firms and as a telephone representative at the Home Shopping Network. Honestly, I don't know how I did that! To this day, it is the hardest thing I have to do. I love email for that reason. Stick to your plan and if you need to add more to your list then do so. Keep it where you can see it and view it several times a day. Try it and see if it helps.
Copyright © 2021 Kathleen G. Lupole
1 comment:
A great post....
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