Stress Signals are Signals for Change

So many of us, our friends, and our colleagues are routinely stressed with the many demands of full lives. And, the holidays and year-end deadlines can create uber-stress.  Until I had the chance to hear Dr. Bill Crawford yesterday, I'd not ever thought of stress signals like the warning lights on the dashboard of our car. Viewed this way, our stress signals are gifts that let us know that we need to make changes to make the warning lights go away.  How sad, but interesting that most of us are more responsive to our car's dashboard than our body's dashboard.

Art Support

We often think of different broad aspects and avenues of support, but until last night, I'd not thought of art support. Ted Ellis is a talented artist.  Only because I was supporting a valued colleague's special event, did I even have the opportunity to meet him.

He is a talented artist - charming, engaging and knowledgeable.  All attendees received a gift bag with a matted copy of one of Ted's works.  Though many pieces were featured, mine could not have been more meaningful.  As I was leaving, with gift bag in hand, I stopped and returned to have Ted sign mine. Unbelievably, this work was "Funeral Procession".  A month after Edgar's death, it was art supportive to receive another reminder that everything is beautifully connected to help us.

Creating New Memories

Often, when we are faced with grief or change, our instinct is to hold on to the familiar.  However, grief and change require us to do things differently.  When we accept that we can't stop time, it frees us to move forward.

Dread prefaces special occasions and holidays.  Changing the expected celebrations allows us to acknowledge our missing, and create new ways of coping and moving forward.

My birthday came far too close to Edgar's death to anticipate celebration.  However, fabulous family and friends created special new memories to create joy and allow me to move forward.

Better than Expected

With all of the running apps now available, I feared comparing my old trusty app with one of the newer, well-touted GPS-based programs.  Determined to meet my amended annual running goal, my concern was that I'd been overestimating my distance, and would fall impossibly short of the goal, if recalculation was necessary.  I decided to face my fear this morning and tracked my jog using both the old and new programs. What a surprise and relief to learn that my old device was registering less distance than the new app!

Sometimes facing our fears yields far better outcomes than expected.   And, we end the worry of not knowing what we'll find.