Monday quote:

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.”
~ Jane Wagner

Funny and true! Especially when reality is as full of stress-causers as it is these days!

Geez, Louise — you can’t turn on the news or walk past a newspaper stand, without seeing more dismal news. And for millions of people, it’s not just bad stuff on the news – it’s real life. I tell you, it’s enough to turn a person into a giant screaming ball of stress!

Of course I'm bleeping stressed!!

But wait… I’ve taken stress management courses before, and their mantra was that “You’re the only person who can cause yourself stress.”

That’s right. You’re to blame for the stress, too, so why not add a little more guilt for that too?

Now they do have a point, I admit. Feeling like a helpless victim is never useful. Other people and situations can present you with a certain trigger or set of facts — a certain reality. After that, it’s up to you to decide how to react to it.

If you get bad news — whether it’s a pink slip, a medical diagnosis, or a Dear Jane letter, how do you react to it? With tears of despair, or steely resolve, or eruptions of anger, or an icy calm? Do you want to try out that primal scream, or take a baseball bat to somebody’s car, or curl up into a tiny ball and disappear?

It’s certainly true that we do control our reactions to situations. We’ve all seen cases where multiple people are all presented with the same circumstances, yet they react in different ways, some empowering and helpful, others disempowering and self-destructive.

However, it seems only logical to admit that while we have a range of emotions and reactions available to us, it’s a limited range.

Surely nobody except a superhuman ice machine could lose their job, lose their home, lose their health care, or face financial ruin, and NOT be under stress. Even if you’re in the “steely resolve” reaction phase, and moving forward in every way you can to bring about positive change, there’s still stress involved. How could there not be?

So I guess that means I agree with the comedian more than the stress management experts who have done their best to educate me otherwise… Reality IS the leading cause of stress!

What do you think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m down in Tucson now, for a mini-vacation. As much as I know I should be back in the office working, I find that a getaway now and then is so important to clear my head, and get a little sense of space back. It’s one of those Catch-22’s — the more we’re stressed, the more we need a break, and the less we feel able to take one. (But of course I *did* bring the computer!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~