Dumping the Zings

Dumping the Zings

So part of this “Why am I happy” campaign of mine includes finding better ways of dealing with stress than a fifth of bad scotch before bed.

One really great way I’ve found is to avoid it. Yeah, it’s kind of obvious, but just bear with me.

Think about your morning time. Do you love it? Is it time for you? Are you spending some of that morning time on something that really matters to you personally?

When we start our day in chaos, we set ourselves up for the rest of the day. By noticing where we get rushed or stress, and changing that, we can start our day with our peace on.

I raced around in the morning trying to find the stuff I needed to take with me, trying to figure out what I was going to wear, and the other sock. And suddenly, there wasn’t enough time to dry my hair, and I couldn’t find my bus card or my keys. And now I am going to be late. Again. ARRRGGGGG!!!

Now, ten minutes in the evening and I’ve laid my clothes out, with socks, packed my bag, and keys and bus card are where they are supposed to be. And if I wash my hair tonight, my morning is peaceful.

When we take a step back and see where we create our own stresses, we can start finding resolutions for those stressors.

Why am I so creative? How do I see solutions? Why do resolutions come easily to me?

I stop stressing over traffic when I think of it as an opportunity to be alert and patient at the same time, like a weird video game.

Knowing where I am on that scale of one to ten with one being relaxed and ten being stressed can be useful. The more I let myself go to stressed the more yelly and sweary I get. Now, I think being yelly can be really fun, and I love Halloween as my personal Holiday of Screams. Screaming is also mega fun, and I will, from time to time, scream into pillows so’s not to scare the neighbors. But I digress.

Yelly isn’t fun when I’m mad. And I get to mad faster when I’m feeling stressed.

So what else can I do to ease my stress? I’ve learned to handle tasks that will only take a couple minutes as they come up. Did you know that it takes nine seconds to change a roll of toilet paper? Two minutes to clean the cat box. Two minutes to take out the trash and recycling. Thirty seconds to wash my cup, and that includes waiting for the water to get hot.

Little things don’t build up into overwhelming things. I like that.

I also look for pockets of time where I can stop for a few minutes in the middle of things. It’s like a quicky body-scan meditation. I notice my feet, become aware of my toes, notice up my legs, notice my breath. Sometimes, I will take a few moments, cover my eyes, and block my ears and just listen to my insides. It reminds me that I am not my stress. I am a being with resources.

How have I changed from feeling tight as a violin string ready to snap to feeling relaxed, peaceful, and centered?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 11202013