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.

Little Irritants Aren't About Me

One of the hardest things to remember when we're stressed or frustrated, is that things didn't suddenly conspire to increase our angst.  It's often the way I'm viewing the circumstances that make it seem that way.  Some interesting things to rationally consider when we're very calm and controlled:

• traffic lights don't randomly turn red when a given car appears
• the trains that block traffic on Westheimer, San Felipe and Richmond travel on their schedule, not ours
• processing cut-off and pick-up times are uniformly applied
• expiration dates are set well in advance of our intent to use an item or service
• the "change password gremlins" have a preset timeline independent of our important deadlines
• adult proof packaging is intended to protect our children, not preclude us from accessing products
• airlines don't intentionally delay flights
• the copier and printer have a preset number of pages a cartridge will produce
• retail stores have established times for opening and closing
• many professional service providers tend to keep the same business hours that we do - so that very early or late appointment that would be ideal for us isn't an option
• Daylight Savings Time isn't optional
• the change in the postal rate was universal and every conceivable stamp denomination is not available (remember this if you receive snail mail from me with three stamps - 32 cent,  10 cent and 4 cent)
• the office doesn't have a mother-in-charge, we all are expected to be responsible adults
• the person declaring urgency or importance doesn't always have sway with the person assessing the situation
• there is no organizational mandate to have only one cashier

The list, is of course, endless.  Which minor irritants challenge you to remember "it's not all about me"/

Stress of Waiting

My newest great-nephew was born on Sunday.  Mom and baby are healthy and happy! Nine months to prepare for a birth is one thing.  Waiting for delivery once labor begins adds another dimension to the stress of waiting.  Extended family members and friends become acutely aware and interested in the pending miracle of birth.  Geographically distant relatives and friends call or wait impatiently for updates.  Once a healthy baby is welcomed into the world and the new mom is okay, the stress dissipates and the celebration begins.

Daily waiting for tardy family members, guests, attendees, employees or volunteers is also stressful, without a joyous event to celebrate upon arrival.  

Babies can't reduce the stress of waiting.  The rest of us can.

Jigsaw Puzzle

Life is overly full, incredibly interesting and quite rewarding.  And I was beginning to feel overwhelmed earlier this week. My to do list's 155 items were quickly supplemented with write-ins.  Not surprisingly, my stress level decreased once I captured and categorized the many things I need to do.  Before investing the time to plan, I felt like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that had just been dumped on the table.  Now I've found the picture on the box, turned over all the pieces and started to assemble the border.  Progress comes in many forms.  My jigsaw puzzle of responsibilities is taking shape beautifully.

Stress-O-Meter

We all have our clues that we're letting our stress get out of control.  Mine is the red light.  I know that it's time to regroup when each red stoplight seems to last for five minutes.  It's easier to manage stress when we recognize our own signals that we need to make adjustments.

Whew!  I feel better already.

Stressless

I've finally realized that I must always achieve optimal results to be satisfied. I've frequently observed that if I happened to be a Wal-Mart greeter, I'd organize the shopping carts for optimal shopper and enterprise success and propose options for increased efficiency.  I share that observation to make the point that much of my stress is self-imposed. 

The fact that "stressless" is not a word, actually gives me comfort.  Since a certain amount of stress is always present, our best option is to stress less about the less important elements in order to experience less stress.

Stress Buster

It is easy to focus on what is missing from our lives. Stress is often the result of too much to do with too little time or too few resources.   When I recognize how thankful I am for abundant opportunities my attitude of gratitude is an instant stress buster.

Waiting

I'm not good at waiting - I get impatient at stoplights.  Because I honor appointment times, I expect others to do the same.  Yesterday I spent the day waiting for a promised notification for an important online activation, which never occurred; and for a locksmith who arrived 5 hours late. 

Think about the increase in productivity and decrease in stress that results when we all timely follow through with our commitments. 

Sea of Red Lights

I have all of the advantages of living in a major U.S. city.  We have access to world-class arts, restaurants and medicine and have an economy that has fared far better than the rest of the nation.  Our cost of living is superior to most metro areas.  And generally, though I am out and about a lot, I rarely have traffic problems.  I've always been blessed to live close to work.  In fact, years ago when asked about working for a wonderful company that I admired, my response was that it was "GU".  My definition of GU was geographically undesirable.  Fifteen - twenty minute travel time has been my benchmark, which I've been most fortunate to have experienced during my entire career.  Often, I've enjoyed 5-10 minute commutes, which few expect to find in a major city.

So, when I am caught on a freeway in rush hour traffic, as I was this week, and see only a sea of red tail lights, I experience anxiety.  My assumption is that those who experience daily delays find multiple coping strategies, including books on tape, programmed calls to contacts and self-imposed think time.

A trip that takes me 12 minutes for morning meetings took me 37 minutes this evening. Regardless of the time involved, if you triple the commute, it's significant.

My hat is off to those of you who endure daily seas of red lights.  You are far more patient than I am.  I'd love to know your stress-reducing actions.