Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Stress Management
Stress Management
By Ian Lowden, M.Sc., B.A.
ian.lowden@shaw.ca
When I taught classes on stress management I often used an old technique I had gotten from one of my teachers. I would hand out glasses of water to each student. Everyone agreed that holding up their glass of water was no big deal because it weighed so little. They continued holding up their glasses while I talked about stress and stressors. After several minutes many people were grimacing and obviously having some distress. By the one hour mark most people had put down their glass and were rubbing their arm and wrist, by the 2 hour mark everyone had put down their glass
That was the real lesson. The weight of the glass was not much but having to hold it up eventually wore out the muscles, and so it is with stress. It is not the size of our burden, in fact many of us carry several stressors, it was not being able to put it down to rest that caused the problem. Reducing stress is two fold: knowing when and how to put down your load is the first part. Knowing what stressors we need to pick up again and which can be left behind is the second wisdom.
Most people are not overwhelmed by the stress of their lives. They become weary and worn out by not knowing how and when to take a break and by not knowing which stressor we have to pick up again. It is like the example of the backpack full of stones. Each stone is another piece of stress we feel we must carry. Finding healthy non-destructive ways of resting is as important as realizing that we don’t have to keep adding stones to our backpack; sometimes we can sort through them and decide to toss some away. Just because we have been carrying something doesn’t mean we have to always carry it. Many stressors like old hurts, jealousies, angers and insults we don’t have to keep carrying. We can learn to let go of the non-essential.
By Ian Lowden, M.Sc., B.A.
ian.lowden@shaw.ca
When I taught classes on stress management I often used an old technique I had gotten from one of my teachers. I would hand out glasses of water to each student. Everyone agreed that holding up their glass of water was no big deal because it weighed so little. They continued holding up their glasses while I talked about stress and stressors. After several minutes many people were grimacing and obviously having some distress. By the one hour mark most people had put down their glass and were rubbing their arm and wrist, by the 2 hour mark everyone had put down their glass
That was the real lesson. The weight of the glass was not much but having to hold it up eventually wore out the muscles, and so it is with stress. It is not the size of our burden, in fact many of us carry several stressors, it was not being able to put it down to rest that caused the problem. Reducing stress is two fold: knowing when and how to put down your load is the first part. Knowing what stressors we need to pick up again and which can be left behind is the second wisdom.
Most people are not overwhelmed by the stress of their lives. They become weary and worn out by not knowing how and when to take a break and by not knowing which stressor we have to pick up again. It is like the example of the backpack full of stones. Each stone is another piece of stress we feel we must carry. Finding healthy non-destructive ways of resting is as important as realizing that we don’t have to keep adding stones to our backpack; sometimes we can sort through them and decide to toss some away. Just because we have been carrying something doesn’t mean we have to always carry it. Many stressors like old hurts, jealousies, angers and insults we don’t have to keep carrying. We can learn to let go of the non-essential.
