Things are crazy, super crazy! I have to pack for my trip, pack up the rest of the house for renovations, take our the things we will need for this summer down to our interim accommodations (2 months in a tiny suite with 5 people!). Chris is leaving tomorrow for Ottawa, I will not see him again until he arrives in California with the kids on June 22nd. All this plus Karma yoga, blog entries, getting money for my trip and taking care of a number of other things which I have procrastinated. Yes, I am a little stressed out!
The question I am putting into 12 days journal #58 is, “How do you handle stress?”.
Today I am handling it by grouping tasks, calling in favours, directing friends and family who have offered help. Also by minimizing the things I have to do. This entry is one of those things. So I am minimizing my stress by leaving this entry at 200 words (not an easy task for me).
I plan to go over to my friend Kim's house tonight. To give her a massage. She is suffering with an injury that has the muscles in her shoulder seizing. She is a massage therapist, like me, only she is the sole income for her family. She is a single mom of a sweet little daughter. Her family is larger than this though, because she is a mother to us all. Just last weekend she put a plan into action so I could go say good-bye to a dear friend who I won’t see for FAR too long. She saw an opportunity for me to experience joy and just took care of everything. She often opens her house up on Sunday mornings to feed all her weekend weary friends. She makes tinctures for any ailment we have and rides them just like a mama to take their medicine. The list could go on, but I am suppose to be keeping this short.
I am going over to her house to mother the mother. I love ya Kim, I am so very blessed to have you as my friend...and sometimes mother.
372 words....not quite 200 but not too shabby!
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ReplyDeleteHow do I deal with stress? I take a herbal supplement that helps. Sometimes I pretend I'm a fainting goat and just go to sleep. Dealing with stress is one of the things that has been very challenging since the head injury. Sometimes I cry and sometimes I dissociate. My ability to deal with stressful situations his improved greatly but I still have a hard time with it.
ReplyDeleteWith the worst stressors in my life, I haven't been able to do anything except make the necessary changes to remove the stressors. For the smaller stuff, I use exercise, meditation, music (this one works like nothing else, most of the time!), letting go of everything for an hour or two to just play and hang with my kids (they make me laugh, and laughter seems to release a lot of stress for me, and helps me get back to the problem with a fresh perspective), laughter (as I said), chatting with a friend who cares who will just let me vent and blow off steam, sometimes cry, and in worse situations and ones that I can't change, I do like Chris and dissociate somewhat until I have a better opportunity and more time and strength to work through the problem that's stressing me out.
ReplyDeleteI recently discovered that walking a labyrinth was an unconventional but really amazing tool for reducing my stress levels. Attending kirtans as well. But those may not be for everybody, although they do work wonders for me.