Stress, and how we deal with it.

Stress. We all have it, some more than others, and most of us don’t know how to deal with it well.

Whether its your job, your family, your pet, your friends, or even other people driving on the road, we all have stress, and we all have different ways of dealing with it. Some of our ways are good, some of the ways are bad, but we all do what works best for us.

I personally consume massive amounts of caffeine, smoke more cigarettes, and lose sleep. This is a decidedly bad way to deal with stress, as it simply does more bodily harm, or stress to me. I keep going in this pattern because it’s how I’ve trained my body to deal with the stress and let me relax. To gain those five or ten minutes to clear my head and let those stresses go.

While on the other hand, my friend Alex cleans like a fiend to deal with her stress. I left my apartment a mess this morning, and what would have taken me five hours took her about a hour to do. She was also more relaxed, calm, and at peace than I had almost ever seen her. While my methods are decidedly unhealthy, all her habits are extremely productive and helpful to her well being.

So why do I keep doing this?

It’s a common opinion of the smoking public that smoking lowers stress. Almost a “reset button” as my friend Dale says, we keep doing this because we believe it helps us. Its nothing more than placebo effect to help us relax and calm down.
So why the caffeine?
My belief is that it enables me to work at a faster rate, and hence deal with the stressing factor faster and more efficiently. While drinking quad-espressos puts undue stress on my heart and brain, even goes as far as to change how I interact with people, my mental belief, my mental peg, is that it speeds me up so I can finish things faster and get away from the stressing factor faster.

What we need to do is separate the mental pegs from the actions that trigger these states of mind. Obviously, this is easier said than done. I have been slowly trying to accomplish this idea using everything from meditation techniques to working out to painting. Those mystical states of mind, the “runners trance”, the deep theta level brain waves achieved by meditation, even the dream like state in painting where pictures and ideas just flow into and out of you, these are all mental states that allow us to free ourselves from the stresses of daily life and relax. I believe that once these states of mind are practiced enough, we should be able to access them at anytime, with out the accompanying physical action.

I hope this all provides you with something to think about, I know it did for me, if you’re not yet, follow me on Twitter.com at Stay_Calm, and please friends, remember to stay calm.