Another day, get the kids going and then off to work. Your boss is crabby. The coffee is cold. You wonder if you can stand another day of this drudge. You pray for a modest miracle but none appears. Your stomach holds butterflies hostage, your eyes are a radiant shade of pink, and your shoulder muscles haven’t come down from around your ears for months.

You begin to ask yourself if your life is this really worth it? You begin to think a monastic life might not be so bad, at least for a couple of years. Or could it be you are taking life just a little too seriously?

Most people can handle short-term stressful situations quite well while managing to remain their usual loving giving selves but continuous negative stress zaps our mental and physical energies and can turn the most patient of souls into a green eyed fire breathing monster. New studies show taking life and its blend of highs and lows too seriously causes the largest percentage of what we perceive as stress and a situation is only stressful if we perceive it as such.

The next time you find yourself ready to rocket off to Mars, or a monastery over a stressful situation you have little or no control over consider these:

• Set goals and keep them but don’t be rigid. If you make a list of ten things to do in a day, be happy if you got the first three done.
• Stand up for yourself when you know you are right. You never lose respect when you are willing to stand up for what you feel is right.
• Never speak harsh words to those you love.
• Volunteer your time to something you love or a cause you believe in.
• Work at making and keeping your friends. Your work will be there waiting when you’re done playing.
• You feel what you feel- happiness, sadness, anger. Don’t suppress them. Instead find a suitable outlet and vent them.
• Never go to sleep angry.
• Never eat when you are angry or upset.
• Wear only comfortable clothes that you feel and look good in.
• Be kind to animals and children.
• Be sure to say I love you to all those you really do love.
• Strive to be happy.

Trying to view our circumstances in a different light, taking ourselves non-seriously is vital to managing stressful situations. Slow the megawatt thinking process down and cut yourself some slack. After all I would be willing to bet you give your friends and family members those considerations- you deserve them too.

Till next time, Rebecca.