You were late to work due to a traffic jam. You spilled coffee all over your brand new shirt before meeting with your new potential clients. John has only been at the company three years and he was promoted even though you’ve been there longer. Your kids science project is due tomorrow and the craft store closed an hour ago, and even though your son has had three months to work on the project he hasn’t even started. On top of all of this your daughter’s hamster died and she wants to know if hamsters go to heaven and why you can’t just wake it back up. And, all of this happened before you even saw the latest tragedies on the nightly news.
Does any of this sound familiar? Life can get pretty stressful at times. It can even feel like every day is a bad day some months. Fret not though, this too shall pass. What we must remember is to find balance regardless of what life delivers to us. The question is though, how can you find balance in a stressful world?
First, you must accept that stress can’t be avoided. Stressful situations will come up no matter where you live, how much money you make, and regardless of whether or not you’re a “good” person. Charles R. Swindoll said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” The good news is that you get to choose how you react to it. You can get bent out of shape with every circumstance that comes your way and live an incredibly stressed and depressed life, or you can choose to look at everything that happens as an opportunity to learn and grow.
You can also choose to avoid some stressors. For example, you don’t have to watch the evening news. There is a difference between being informed and being enamored with information. Get the facts online or in a newspaper, but don’t leave horrific images playing over and over again as many news stations tend to do these days. Another example would be to work out and eat right as a way to avoid the stressors of being overweight and/or unhealthy. If there are other elements in your life that stress you out, remove those too. This might mean you need to find a less stressful job, avoid horror movies, organizing your living space or even leaving the house ten minutes earlier to avoid the stress of rush hour traffic.
Once you start looking at your life with a fine-toothed comb and analyzing the stressors in your life, you can begin to properly address them. This will help you restore balance in your mind and body. However, one thing you might find in your life analysis is that there are things stressing you that you can’t avoid. A few examples could include but are not limited to: being unable to change jobs, struggling to pay debts, layoffs at work, divorce, deaths in the family, car accidents, the flu going around, appliances breaking down, I could go on and on. In these moments when you are confronted by an unavoidable stressor, do the following:
– Look at the situation objectively before reacting
– Determine what you can do about it
– Do the things you can and pray/meditate on what you can’t control
– Remember to be grateful for all you do have
– Seek out the lessons from the situation
– Move on
Moving on is often the hardest step, but wallowing in the stress will only make things worse. Remember Swindoll’s quote and take care in how you react to the things that happen to and around you. May your stress be minimal and your life be balanced.