I find it ironic that I’m posting words about avoiding excess stress. I’m actually still seeking solutions to avoiding excess stress. I read about how to de-stress. I purchased many products that claim to decrease stress in our lives, such as this scented stress candle burning in front of me right now. I’ve learned some things about stress though, so maybe some of what I’ve experienced will help others. First, stress is inevitable. There are inescapable daily stressors that everyone will confront, deal with, and soon forget. Most of us face stress forty times each day. In the first 3 hours of my day today, I faced waking up at 4:23 AM to the noise of my husband leaving for work early, nursing an unhappy dog, and rushing to take a shower and get dressed an hour earlier than normal to get my son to school and my mother to chemo. The stressor not mentioned that I opted to avoid today is work. I took today off to help my mom. It’s not necessarily one particular stress that causes my joints to hurt unbelievably badly; it’s usually a combination of stressors that mold together forming a steep mountain I must cross. Taking something off the top of the mountain helps to climb it. The second thing I’ve learned about stress is that it is sneaky and very dangerous. It impacts my joints, my muscles, my head, and therefore my attitude. It can infiltrate the lives of our friends, family, colleagues, and even our pets. Stress also needs to be placed in perspective. While with my mother at chemo treatment for lung cancer, I looked around at all of the patients—young, old and middle-aged—and at the nursing staff and then I considered their levels of stress. My problems were minimized again. How do you avoid stress and how does it impact you?
