Stress management & the busy writer
A co-worker of mine sent this to me yesterday. Considering I'm in the last week of Bewitched & Betrayed, I thought it was perfectly timed. ; ) And I thought it was great advice for any of us who work too hard and play too little. Enjoy.
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. So, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be "recalled" by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* When everything's coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Lisa
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. So, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be "recalled" by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* When everything's coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
6:03 AM
12 Comments:
That's quite an awesome post! Made me smile a fair few times! Quite thought provoking. Thank you :)
Thank you very much for this post. I needed something like this. I slept only three hours last night, and when I had to get up today, I was only asleep for half an hour. So I decided to forget all my plans for today and take a rest. You simply can't learn for eight hours with this little sleep.
Good reasoning, but that didn't keep me from feeling guilty for learning not enough for my exams.
So your post made me smile and say to myself: See? You did the right thing! Thank you :-)
You're welcome, Jo!
Anon., I'm so glad it helped. It helped me yesterday too when I was frazzled and exhausted with writing. Yesterday we had new sod installed in our front & back yards. In the mornings, since I go to work later, it's now my job to water the grass until it gets established. Since we don't have a sprinkler in the back yard yet, I have to do it by hand with a water hose. It was a surprisingly relaxing and Zen experience. ; ) When the water squished between my toes, I knew it was time to move on to the next section. A simple task, yet very relaxing. A nice way to start the day.
Wow! What a great post! Thanks so much for this. It brightened my day!
I'm going to print this out and pin it up - this should be labelled 'essential for a writer's life'. Thank you!
Thanks for posting this! I sent a copy to my husband.
Thank you, ladies!
Wow. This is really thought provoking. Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely. Brilliant. 'Nuff said.
Great post and perfect timing! I'm sharing it with several people, some who write and some who don't. And, I plan to print a copy for myself.
I'm so glad it's been helpful to everyone!
{chuckle, Smile} I particularly like the scenery. Many detours do have nice scenery. But then, as a passenger, I'm usually paying more attention to the scenery. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
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