Wednesday, April 16, 2014

"Calgon, Take Me Away"

When I was a young kid there was a commercial where a mother, ran ragged from the "stresses" of the day just wanted to take a bath in this wonderful, relaxing, amazing smelling, bath salts to soak all the cares of the day away.  (For those of you who are from an age this side of the 70's I have added a video for your amazement).


Stress can mean different things for different people. With that said, many people are stressed about things that wouldn't bother another person. What stresses one person out can be a comfort to someone else.

Lets use me as an example. I can run a billion dollar a year restaurant, make schedules, order food, keep the drive-thru moving steadily, cover shifts, count money, make change, go to the bank, pay bills, make payroll, do end of the day paperwork, do opening paperwork, and run a position in a restaurant and feel right at home trying to do all these things in a few hours. For me, it is relaxing. I "get" it. I am "good" at it. Now, we will use today as an example. In a matter of 6 hours I had 2 anxiety attacks. Both were to the point that I broke down, my chest hurt, I was crying, and almost immobilized....guess what happened to cause this? The first one came when I tried to fold a king size fitted sheet.  Don't get me wrong, I love my king size bed. In fact, we just got it not long ago. I excitedly ran out and bought a second set of sheets so I wouldn't have to launder the one set and put it back on the bed, leaving the bed unmade while the sheets were being laundered. HUGE mistake...now I have to fold the other set of sheets. I am telling you that someone smoked some strange stuff before they came up with the idea of king size fitted sheets. I was so stressed out I couldn't handle it.

Now, before you laugh too hard let me tell you what caused the second anxiety attack...a basket of socks. I am not EVEN joking. I have always hated socks. I almost wish I was born in this era where wearing mismatched socks was fashionable. (I hate it when I see kids doing this). Socks stress me out beyond measure. I use to throw them all in a basket and everyone would have to dig for their own socks. I learned several lessons by this...1. they will always grab MY socks and I will end up with none. 2. they wear them mismatched so grabbing a "pair" of socks is no big thing to them. 3. if I just leave them in the basket then I have to face the stupid basket of socks every day to get a new pair and I learned that was just too stressful so I do actually fold them now. (FYI...buy the same kinds of socks and make them all white and mating them is MUCH easier...plus I have 16 pairs now..which means I only have to do this chore once every 2 weeks.)

For this kind of stress you learn how to calm yourself. To breath and start again in a few minutes. To walk away, to ask for help, to leave it for another day or another time...or to realize that it isn't life or death. If the socks don't get folded no one is really going to be bothered by it.

Since I stay at home full-time now these two things are a routine job for me. Well, as routine as they can be. However, they aren't the only thing that causes stress in my life. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. It came about as the result of several very traumatic events in my life in a short period of time.  It is like a battlefield in your mind. A war that is being raged against every single one of your senses. It is horrible and can be horrendous.

For this kind of stress you may been medical intervention. Medication, counseling, or other things can help to ease this stress....however, it may not ever go away completely.

We all have things that stress us out in different ways. For some people big things just send them over the edge, for others, like me, the small things eat my lunch on a regular basis. The answer lies with finding what works best for you. A hobby, a walk, reading, a phone call to a friend, journaling, there are so many things that one can do to combat stress.

With today being National Stress Awareness Day I hope we are all able to realize that we all have small and large stressors....we are each different....things bother each of us differently. No two people are alike in every aspect. If nothing else, if you see someone else stressed out give them an extra smile, say a thank-you, open their door for them, help them pick something up off the floor. DO SOMETHING...if we all help each other with the small things life would be a lot less stressful.

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