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Stress
Too Tense
A man went to his psychiatrist and he said, “Sometimes I think I’m a teepee and sometimes I think I’m a wigwam.” The psychiatrist said, “Your problem is you’re two tents.”
The Bell, the Clapper, and the Cord: Wit and Witticism, (Baltimore: National Federation of the Blind, 1994), p. 80
Proven Stress Reducers
1. Don’t rely on your memory. Write down appointments, when to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc.
2. Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning so you don’t start the day feeling frazzled.
3. Keep a duplicate car key in your wallet.
4. An instant cure for most stress: 30 minutes of brisk walking or other aerobic exercise.
5. Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and erring, for sometime in life you will have been all of these.
6. Say “No, thank you” to extra projects you don’t have the time or energy for.
7. Set up contingency plans—just in case, “If either of us is delayed,” “If we get separated in the Mall, here’s what we’ll do...”
8. Put brain in gear before opening mouth. Before saying anything, ask yourself if what you are about to say is 1)True, 2) Kind, and 3) Necessary.
9. Stop worrying, If something concerns you, do something about it. If you can’t do anything about it, let it go.
10. For every one thing that goes wrong, there are 50 to 100 blessings. Count them.
11. Learn to live one day at a time.
12. Every day, do at least one thing you really enjoy.
13. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
14. Laugh!
15. Remember that the best things in life aren’t things.
16. Add an ounce of love to everything you do.
17. If an unpleasant task faces you, do it early in the day and get it over with.
18. Do one thing at a time.
Source unknown
How to Relieve Stress
How do top corporate executives relieve stress? A recent survey by a temporary-help agency yielded several surprising results. One way is by throwing plates against the wall! Other unusual methods for venting anger and frustration included singing opera while being kept on hold on the telephone, fiddling with children’s “Silly Putty” during meetings, and playing hockey in the company parking lot.
Today in the Word, January 9, 1997, p. 16
Psalm 23 Antithesis
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me into deep depression.
It hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all done,
For my ideal is with me.
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines,
My in-basket overflows.
Surely fatigue and time pressures shall follow me
All the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration
Forever
Source unknown
Judge Said She Was Too Fat
Christy Henrich, as a teenager, ranked among America’s best gymnasts. But a judge told her that at 95 pounds, spread over a 4-foot-11 frame, she was too fat to make the 1988 Olympic team. So she began starving herself, subsisting some days on an apple or just an apple slice. If she ate more, she would force herself to vomit. She missed making the Olympics by a fraction of a point but, thanks to nine-hour training days, she placed fourth in the uneven parallel bars in 1989’s world championships in Stuttgart.
Last week—months after her weight fell to 52 pounds—she died at age 22 in a Kansas City hospital of multiple organ system failure. In the past two years, gymnastics officials have advised coaches and judges about the effects of anorexia and bulimia and urged them not to comment on the weights of gymnasts.
Source unknown
Pictures of South Africa
Kevin Carter could never escape his continent’s turmoil. for a decade, the photographer captured vivid pictures of repression and strife in his native South Africa. Last year, he went to famine-racked Sudan and came upon a starving toddler stalked by a vulture. He photographed the scene—an image that won this year’s Pulitzer Prize—then chased the vulture away. As the child resumed her walk to a feeding station, he lit a cigarette and wept. Last week, at 33, he killed himself with carbon monoxide pumped into his pickup truck.
Explained his father: “Kevin always carried around the horror of the work he did.”
U.S. News and World Report, August 8, 1994
Resources
- Ask Him Anything, L. J. Ogilvie, Word, 1981, pp. 194ff
- Transformed by Thorns, pp. 44-57
- Swindoll, Three Steps..., p. 35
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Traits Characteristic of the Stress-Prone
1. Plans day unrealistically
2. First to arrive, last to leave
3. Always in a hurry
4. Makes no plan for relaxation
5. Feels guilty about doing anything other than work
6. Sees unforeseen problem as a setback or disaster
7. Is always thinking about several other things when working
8. Feels need to be recognized and overextends because of this
Source unknown
What to Do
1. Recognize aggravating aspects of your job and accept them rather than fight them. Wisdom to discern what can and cannot be changed, attempt to change the first and accept the second.
2. Identify your emotional needs and find ways to meet them.
3. Practice listening—it is more relaxing than talking
4. Be sensitive to change—sense it coming and make adjustments. This makes change manageable rather than insurmountable.
From Leadership, V. 1, #3, p. 99
Symptoms of Stress Overload
1. Decision-making becomes difficult (both major and minor kinds).
2. Excessive daydreaming or fantasizing about “getting away from it all.”
3. Increased use of cigarettes and/or alcohol.
4. Increased use of tranquilizers and “uppers.”
5. Thoughts trail off while speaking or writing.
6. Excessive worrying about all things.
7. Sudden outbursts of temper and hostility.
8. Paranoid ideas and mistrust of friends and family.
9. Forgetfulness for appointments, deadlines, dates.
10. Frequent spells of brooding and feeling of inadequacy.
11. Reversals in usual behavior.
From Stress/Unstress by Keith W. Wehnert, 1981, Augsburg
Resource
- Gordon McDonald, Ordering Your Private World, pp. 30ff
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Test on Monkey’s
Responsibility for others is one of the chief causes of tension in executives. To prove this idea, an experiment was conducted some time ago with two monkeys. Scientists devised a method of giving one of the monkeys “executive” training under carefully controlled laboratory conditions.
The monkey chosen for executive training was strapped in a chair with his feet on a plate capable of giving him a minor electric shock. Then they put a light over the desk and turned the light on 20 seconds before each shock. A lever was placed by the monkey’s chair. If he pulled the lever after the light came on, the light would go out and there would be no shock. The executive monkey learned to avoid the shock very quickly. The scientists then placed another monkey across the room with the same setup, except that the second monkey’s lever didn’t work. However, the monkeys soon learned that the first monkey’s lever would work for both, turning off the second monkey’s light and protecting him from shock as well. This made the first monkey an executive, since he was now responsible for preventing shock for the second one.
The first monkey was intelligent. He quickly took over, protecting both himself and his colleague from shock, responding to both lights or either light without difficulty. There was no outward change in either monkey as the experiment continued, but after awhile the executive monkey, responding to the stress of responsibility for another, developed stomach ulcers. The second monkey’s health remained unchanged.
Source unknown
Pressure
Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely, it seems beyond strength;
Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul;
Pressed in the mind, till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and pressure by friends—
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.
Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into tasting the joy of the Lord;
Pressed into loving a Christlife outpoured.
Source unknown
Stress Reduction Salons
About a dozen new “stress-reduction salons” have opened in the U.S. and also in Japan. Members of these Synchro Energize salons slip off their shoes, climb into beds and lie with eyes closed for the next 45 minutes. Spinning patterns of intense colors appear before their eyes, and a low pulsating beat follows them as they drift in and out of dreamlike states. The centers have attracted everyone from harried executives to anxious teens. Typical cost: $20 per session. Medical research has shown that light and sound stimuli affect the brain. The results range from making a person alert or relaxed, and from deep sleep to intense learning. Moreover, changing patterns of light and sound would seem to change brain states.
Source unknown
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