Desperate Houseflies: The Magazine

Feel free to pull out your trusty fly swatter and comment on what is posted here, realizing that this odd collection of writers may prove as difficult to kill as houseflies and are presumably just as pesky. “Desperate Houseflies” is a magazine that intends to publish weekly articles on subjects such as politics, literature, history, sports, photography, religion, and no telling what else. We’ll see what happens.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

I'm Stressed!

Seems like I never write about what I think I’m going to write about. Oh, well, for once I’m spontaneous!

Experiences of this past couple of weeks have helped me realize what stress feels like to me and what affects it has on my body. So, I want to take a little time to talk about stress.

The word “stress” is something I think all would agree can have a negative affect on your health. Even if people don’t agree that negative thinking and negative emotions can have negative affects on your health—pretty much everyone has accepted the unhealthiness of “stress.”

But, what is stress? And what causes it?

Stress, whatever it is, makes me feel very tense—like I am a tight ball of nerves. I get irritable and overwhelmed, and it seems to accompany being nervous and worried. Well, sure, I snuck in some negative emotions in my description of stress. Maybe, your feelings are completely different.

But, what is stress? It usually happens to me when I feel like I don’t have enough of something—like time or money, etc.—especially time. Deadlines are stressful—not meeting deadlines is even more stressful.

I also get stressed when things don’t work—my email or my computer for instance! Being around chaos and chaotic people is stressful to me, too, because I ultimately like my environment to be harmonious.

Maybe stress for me is a situation where things just don’t go my way. And, when things don’t go my way, I stress myself out. Yes, I do it to myself. How do I do it? Something happens. Things go wrong. Things don’t go as I planned. I’m behind in more ways than one. If I reacted to that scenario in a positive way, I would say to myself, “Just relax. God works in mysterious ways.” But usually, my reaction is, “I’m so stupid! What was I thinking! I can’t do this!” And, I tense up and get upset. There you go—I snuck some negative thinking in my description as well.

I read a lot. I try to read all different types of books by all different types of people. My philosophy is whether I agree with everyone else or not it gives me a wider perspective.

The book True Prosperity by Yehuda Berg states, “Stress is the collision between what you are and what you could be; it’s a wave that rolls through your life. The tension…between potential and actuality is stress. …It is not stress that kills; it is our reaction to it. …So the idea is not to turn stress away, but to let it in. If we want to know what’s holding us back, we must search for the darkness, because only through the darkness will you find the light. And that is what stress does: It finds the darkness, and right behind it, we find the light.”

3 Comments:

Blogger Al Sturgeon said...

Great article, Amy! Great topic, too.

Is peace the antithesis of stress? That's probably the way I see it. Stress as being tense, where there's no restfulness. Peace as the ability to rest.

So I can definitely see the good side of stress to which the quote refers, that unwillingness to be satisified with the status quo. The quality of pressing on toward a better world, a better life...

On the other hand, I think the killer side of stress comes from that place where we can't be happy with ourselves, where we can't be satisified with our own best efforts.

So here's my attempt at playing Webster off the cuff:

* Slothfulness = not giving our best effort at life...

* Stress = giving our best effort at life but not being able to accept it...

* Peace = giving our best effort at life, and being satisfied with the outcome...

Just my thoughts.

7:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Psychologically, stress can be bad two ways...(1) not enough or (2) too much. Yes, there is an optimum level of psychological stress. But it varies for every person. Think about it, too little stress (or none) means we probably don't have much worthwhile going on in our lives. (This might be slothfulness, Al.) Whether we realize it or not, even things that are great in our lives give us some amount of stress. (I know Joe and I give each other lots of it sometimes!!) So, stress is not always a bad thing. It helps us learn and change and be better.

But too much stress for too long of a time is definitely bad for health. That's been as proven as "proven" can really be by health and psychology experts.

Now, here I might rant. Now you'll know the reason I am not a clinical psychologist/therapist. I think (as Amy alluded to) many people create their own stresses; I know I do. Then they let those stresses create new stresses. It turns into an ugly cycle of stress and unhappiness that often leads to other mental and emotional issues. My response to these people would probably be, "Get off your rear, quit whining about things you can change, say a heartfelt prayer, and do something about it."

I think, perhaps, uncontrollable or overwhelming stress is oftentimes reflective of a lack of faith, which I think ties into Al's comments. (I know many people may disagree with me, this is just my fallible opinion.)

We need to keep stress in perspective and always remember Romans 5:3-4 "...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance, character; and character, hope."

Also, a hot bath, a good book, or really cute puppy never hurt! :)

1:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your Blog site is excellent. Thanks and keep up the gook work.
Proven Techniques Help Advise You About Buying New Car.
Check out this site Buying New Car

1:47 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Locations of visitors to this page