Dealing with Stress

Finally, the dreary overcast rainy weather has given way to a couple of days of clear blue skies and sunshine. Both wild and cultivated, spring flowers nourished by the rain and with the warmth of the sun are abundant everywhere, ushering in a new mood as mother earth shakes off the blanket of snow. Earth Day, now come and gone, a reminder that we need to protect what mother earth gives with abundance, a renewal and a promise. Why does stress enter into this idyllic picture? A disturbance of that unique emotional balance that we maintain in our day to day lives can create stress – a word spoken here, a word spoken there, an action that floods us with emotion.
Since April 21, when I began this writing I have gone from the top of the mountain down into an abyss. Now I am alone moping about with a nightmarish cough without the close support of a network of friends or the companionship of a spouse and the laughter of my children about me. So what happened? How can a common variety sore throat throw me off balance? This is a time when even small acts of omission take on significant meanings. Why don’t I feel like facing anyone or going out into the glorious nature that I just mentioned in an earlier paragraph? Why am I unable to see any accomplishments – only a feeling of standing still, getting nothing done. What kind of experience did I think I would have reliving a childhood dream? Did I really think I could make a difference in people’s lives just by being myself – self assured, cocky and independent? Where is that self-assurance now? How did I end up teaching adults English without teaching experience, creating lesson plans that fall apart in class? What results do I expect from this? Organizational change? A few people may emulate my can-do spirit, but like I am today, will also get discouraged and disheartened. They don’t have a safety valve like I do of “going back home”.
To be really honest, this disturbance of my equilibrium started not with the common cold, but with listening about the dark undercurrents in human relationships – unable to forgive and forget minor (minuscule is probably more accurate) slights and continue to remain mired in age-old problems, repeating ad infinitum the same behavior. Some family members excluding each other out of their lives and their celebrations, others isolating one from the other with impossibly difficult to understand reasons of past conversations real or imagined. No culture seems to be immune from this nonsense.
Yesterday, I read a piece of fiction – not a classic in any sense of the word – but a refreshing tale of companionship. Five strangers who converge over a creative and collaborative piece of art – a quilt and how that positive energy finally transforms their daily lives back home. Though the book lifted my spirits, you my reader, who is now fulfilling the triple role of my network of friends, companionship of my spouse and the laughter of my children have sustained me throughout my sojourn here!