Strength from Stress?

Whether you are a work-a-holic, a shop-a-holic, a lady or gent of leisure, a student, a graduate, an invested internet surfer, a kite-surfer, married, single, black, white, purple or a giraffe– everyone has stress. It’s all relative, of course.  As we know, differing factors trigger stress to some people, and not to others– at all. In the least. For example, about 90% of my stresses, my husband thinks are absurd. Where as frankly, I don’t think he stresses enough. At least, not about what I *want* him to stress about. (Ala the scene from the movie The Break-up  …”No, Gary, I *want* you to *want* to help with the dishes”… and “No, Gary, Baby wanted 12 lemons…” ) Insert eye roll.

So, it turns out, that after all those commercials and doctors and health books telling you stress will kill you (awesome! now I’ll stress about my stress!), stress is essential to life. I guess everyone knew that though. It is, after all, inevitable. It’s just nice to be justified in knowing I wasn’t wrong to secretly appreciate the rush I get from the stressed-out feeling. When I stress, my ADD tendencies kick into over-drive and I’m all over the place. I might not be completing every task at hand in that moment, but I sure am knocking sh*t out one started, incomplete project at a time. Then when the adrenaline of stress kicks in round two, I circle back and complete it all. Boom. And when I’m asked at the doctor’s office if I would like to give a trial run to some medication for my “attention deficit” (or anxiety over stress), I politely, emphatically decline. My ability to spaz out on 10 different projects at a time and blow like a wind tunnel through my days is how I get things done, people. It’s my best work. My apologies if I see you and just blurt out a few random questions and answers. I’m in the zone. I don’t know another way right now with all of these humans and such tugging at me :)

I just wanted to share a few articles in case you were one of those stressing about your stress. One is pretty old (like this beautiful bridge despite all of the stress it has endured)–but an easy, helpful read. The other one is about stress as a survival skill in the wild… See– stress is good in the First Aid kit kinda way too!

NBC News Can Stress Actually Be Good For You

National Geographic Stress Can Be Key for Survival

Bottom line is just to know yourself and what amount is a healthy amount. While too much stress can be detrimental, stress is key for survival. Try to translate the “stressed out” feeling into a different, more productive “take-charge and kick some a$$” energy. I know….easier said than done. But I’m pulling for you!