Description
Stress is an interesting word. It is used so much today in psychological terms that we forget that it is actually a physics term. The original idea was how much stress could something, such as a bookshelf, take before it broke. Well humans are not bookshelves and they don’t break due to a physical weight limit. However we have all wondered at times if we were going to “break”. Thus we use terms today like someone having a “nervous break down” whatever that means.
Perhaps they told themselves they couldn’t take it any more. Would that mean they would break like a shelf or that they would become more sad or depressed? At times people reach the point that they are no longer safe as the stress has compromised their thought process and they may be a danger to themselves or others. At other times a person may become psychotic and no longer be in touch with reality. At these extreme times obviously people may need to be hospitalized for their own safety.
But in most cases stress will not likely take us that far. One of the things you can do to help with your own stress is to become more aware of it. For example, have you ever heard yourself say things like, “I can’t take this any more.”, “You are driving me nuts!”.“I can’t take one more second of this.”, or “I gotta get out of here.”?
But what happened before we got to this state? Many times we are not aware until we suddenly feel this bust of mental or emotional intensity.
I suggested it is helpful for us to become more aware of ourselves and our mental state on a regular basis so we can address it sooner rather than later. Stress is not going to go away so to be healthy we have to learn ourselves and how we can work with it before it works with us. The best way to do that is to learn to recognize when we are stressed. What is the very first thing you become aware of when you are starting to become stressed? Don’t know? Start looking for this in yourself and see what you find. Then you can compete the card.
Use this Card to…
- Become more aware of what stresses you
- Begin to deal with stress earlier
- Discern between having a moment of frustration and something really stressing you
- Start the creative process of thinking about what to do when you are stressed
