Monday, June 26, 2006

Stress management

I was browsing through blogs the other night. It's fascinating to see what other people write about in their blogs. One of the blogs I came across is called Master P and had a good post on stress management. I've copied it here for convenience:

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20 g to 500 g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued. "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"

I need to remember this more often. And I could certainly use a vacation at the moment. Now that my nanotechnology class is over, hopefully I'll be able to (and allow myself to) take things a little easier for a couple weeks.

1 comment:

gnp said...

Here is another good article on this topic. I like the "tip to try" at the end:

For the next week, give yourself one hour of leisure every day and experience your leisure differently each day. Try things like taking a walk, sitting in a park, feeding the ducks, reading a book, hiking a mountain, writing a poem, having coffee with a friend, taking 27 photographs with a disposable camera, learning a new language, reading a travel magazine and planning a trip, or, or, or…

It's a very good idea. Now I just need to give myself the one hour of leisure each day - easier said than done.