Therapy Thursday: Stress

I started a new blog! http://therapythursday.blogspot.com/ Therapy Thursday. Might be kinda fun, kinda intense. Never know where it might take us. Go check it out! *** Stress. I really try to manage my stress in positive ways but sometimes it is just easier to "give in" to it and let it pull me down a bit for the day. And sometimes stress can really spur me forward and get things done. Work stress. I've had situations where I feared getting in trouble. I've had situations where an urgent big problem pops up and I am able to fix it but the time crunch makes it a challenge. I've had situations where I'm dealing with other countries and cultures and different work ethics and values. Most of the time, work stress drives me into a more productive mode. And I often find that the thing that most helps with any of my work stress situations is to clean my desk. Home stress. Fighting with my husband, kids being cranky, bills to pay, housework to do... Sometimes organization and cleaning helps. Sometimes reconnecting helps. Sometimes doing something out of the ordinary helps. Home stress is harder on me than work stress because I can leave work stress behind at the end of the day. Home stress stays with me, no matter what. And it takes additional work to relieve it... keeping connected to husband and children takes effort and energy and creativity and interest and compassion. Housework requires energy and interest and time. Bills... money! That can be the hardest one. Because you only have so much money. The bills are what they are and the checking account balance is what it is. Social stress. I don't have much of this because I don't have much of a social life these days! But there can be conflict between friends sometimes. Sometimes, my expectations seem too high for the people who call themselves my friends. So I sometimes wind up in a funk because someone has disappointed or hurt me... even though I should have seen it coming. Not only do I set my expectations high, I tend to be pretty gullible and fully believe that others stick to their commitments, even when they prove that they can't. Managing stress. When I feel the tension increasing, I try to prioritize, organize, take action. I also remember the Serenity Prayer. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. " Figuring out what I do have control over and what I can do to take action... that's a huge part of stress management for me. I'm a problem solver by nature. So being able to DO something makes me feel better. I work on leaving the stress behind as much as I can. No sense in bringing work stress home if it isn't a stress that impacts the home. And sometimes, I indulge. A glass of wine, a bubble bath in dim lights (or with a good book), going to bed early... those are things that can help me relieve the effects of any stress I've encountered. Your turn!