Stress Is A Four Letter Word

How do you handle stress?

I eat lemon cake.

Or fried chicken.

My best friend doesn’t eat at all. She loses her appetite completely.

My co-worker pops pills.

I know others who need to take a walk to calm down.

My boss turns into super woman and goes into a frenzy to accomplish a thousand things all at once.

Well, I cut back on the cake and chicken. I had to when stress is a constant daily factor. The calories really start to add up…

I read once that stress is related to 99% of all illnesses. Actually I think it’s written on my Lululemon shopping bag. It makes sense to me though. It raises our blood sugars, doesn’t it? It affects those with heart conditions, causes stomach ulcers… who knows what other bad and scary things could be happening inside our bodies due to this intangible, mysterious thing.

It’s illusive. It means different things to different people. Some people thrive on it. School stress is my motivation and I love what I can accomplish with it. Daily stress is something else though, the little things that pile up and up and up until – well… what?

Panic attack?
Meltdown?
Anxiety disorder?
Depression?

If you have had one of those things you’ve probably had another. They all hold hands together. And I know the answers are unclear. I feel like I’m just an uncertain being asking other uncertain beings how to “catch smoke” by trying to manage my stress.

So we medicate.
Sedate.
Meditate.
Contemplate.
Then medicate some more…

I’ve been told that depression can be a by-product of high blood sugars. So when our sugars run away on us, our stress levels run away with us.

Then our stress levels keep our sugars high.

It’s a tricky-sticky situation to find yourself in. But maybe we can try to , I don’t know…

Motivate?

Try to turn what stress we can into positive energy that pushes to us to achieve. And the stress we can’t? There will always be the stress we can’t change.

But there’s help for that.

Help we can get so that this type of stress doesn’t change us.