July 27, 2007

Advice: Stress


A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience,
raised a glass of water and asked
"How heavy is this glass of water?"
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight,
but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued,
"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
we won't be able to carry on. "
"As with the glass of water,
you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don't carry it home.
You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now,
let them down for a moment if you can."
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.
Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

~ Sent to me by Lilikoi.

4 comments:

Middle Girl said...

Though..."easier said than done" comes to mind, I can relate. Or rather I can hope that a close family member relates-soon.

Anonymous said...

I love this! Thanks for posting it.

Whiskeymarie said...

This is so true. I used to carry my stress around like a backpack.
I'm better at letting some problems rest a bit now, and - lo and behold- most of the time the problem seems much less "big" when I come back to it.

Uppity said...

Love it! And really, really need it today. Thank you.