Therapy Tuesday
Photo by: bottled_void
Last week, the American Psychological Association released their annual survey looking at our Nation's pulse. Literally. The study is geared towards assessing America's Stress levels. Where do we stand? The good news: stress hasn't risen much in the last year, despite continued economic uncertainty, political unrest, and all the rest that this country is dealing with. In fact, the survey showed that we only feel we have an average of slightly above healthy levels of stress. The study also showed that stress is linked to our physical well being.
So that's well and good. But how do we identify stress? What is it? Stress is something that is part of our lives. We need it. This "good" kind of stress is called eustress. It is what helps us achieve and push ourselves. It's why we study for exams. Or feel a little nervous before a presentation. When stress becomes too much, it's "bad" stress or distress. That is the stress that the survey is looking at. And it's this kind of stress that I'm referring to.
By some people's measures, I should feel stress: after all, I'm balancing raising two children (one of whom is a baby), my own business, dealing with others emotions on a daily basis (the nature of my job), financial pressures, parents growing older, etc. But I don't feel burdened by stress. Let me take that back: mostly, I don't notice it. But I was really aware of it over the holidays.
It just felt like everything was going quickly, and I couldn't keep up. I felt like things were slipping through the cracks and I was missing things. I actually enjoyed the days off that I took--where things basically stopped and there weren't expectations of me. In those moments, I realized that I was stressed--at least by comparison.
That's when I needed to figure out how to take care of myself. So I learned and practiced daily meditation. I only get done what I can do. I try to protect my sleep. I attempt to eat well. Of course, I don't ALWAYS get it right. So I try to allow that to be OK. I also try to let people know when I'm feeling overwhelmed...small examples such as when I am in the middle of doing something, and I'm asked to do something else, I try to acknowledge that I'm at my limit (if I am) and I can get to the other task when I'm done. Again, easier said than done. But I am enjoying being a work in progress.
How do you deal with your stress? When are you able to figure out that it's too much?
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