Question:
Could someone review for me the how to cope with stress ideas?
I did not think that I was stressing, I was just running a classroom
using adrenline. But it would not shut down at the end of the day,
sleep was hard, and I got some sharp chest pains after a week or so.
Now I am trying to grab all the stress relief I can. Can I get a list
to check off so I have all the resources to cope with not coping?
Answer:
Discharging stress is idiosyncratic
and will depend upon what aspects of
life are inducing it.
For me, I feel that my stresses come
from the sense of not having any
influence over my own life, much less
actual control, so, in effect, I have
felt "cornered". Adding to that the
long-held belief that I am neither
lovable nor loved does not help.
Some people can discharge stress via
conjugal interludes, but, as I have
learned, this takes an interested
partner.
So, among other things I mention
below, I write stories to discharge
pressure, anger, grief, depression
and the like. Since there is very
little in life that runs as close to
the human heart as sexuality, I chose
to write in this milieu (though I
will admit that those who read my
stories are surprisingly forgiving
of the grammatical and typographical
errors I make).
I also sail. Going from situations
where I have little control at home
or at work to a place where I am
actually bending an elemmental force
of nature to my bidding provides me
with an unambiguous sense of motion.
That being said, results vary and
dosages are harder to work out.
I *have* joked that one kind of
stress relief is to go out to a gun
range with labelled silhouette
targets (albeit not with names but
with characteristics that you wish
weren't in the "person" symbolized)
though I've never done it... and
making this remark to someone who
is apparently fairly stressed out
HAS gotten some laughs.
So coping mechanisms are going to
be specific to *you* and your
emotional makeup/needs.
It really doesn't hurt to talk to
someone professionally, either. I
really _do_ need to go back to
seeing my therapist.
When I was consulting a professional for stress relief, one of his
favourite techniques was to get you to imagine a safe place. Locate a
childhood memory of a happy time/peaceful time when you were alone.
Build up a clear image of that place (if you can revisit the actual
location, & assuming it is still essentially the same, that helps),
now put yourself in it, and just meditate. Whenever you are stressed,
get somewhere quiet, shut your eyes & go there.
He said he had a lot of success with it. It does presuppose that you
had a happy childhood memory which you have retained - which is where
it broke down for me.
