Feeling anxious/ stressed? (Yep).
Feeling like you don’t know what to prioritize in your thoughts? (Yep).
Like where does one start?
So many to choose from. Hmmmm…. The fires in Australia? The earthquake in Puerto Rico? The election? That darn leaky faucet? Plastic use? Your weight? Your child’s behavior issues? Impeachment? Remembering to sign up for after school? Dealing with that annoying woman at work? Or that throbbing neck pain?
Seriously, where does one start?!
Or is this racing barrage of thoughts thing just a me thing? I don’t think so. I think this is an everyone thing.
Everyone seems to be convinced that the world is falling apart. And why wouldn’t they? Have you read the news? It’s no shocker that we are all stressed and anxious.
There are a LOT of things to worry about and the pile just seems to grow. So much unresolved and so much more coming.
And I’ve heard the argument that we (and those following) are just a weak generation, that we will don’t know stress like “the greatest generation” who dealt with world wars, diseases like polio etc. That we were raised to recognize “feelings” and are weak, too coddled. Bunch of whining babies. But I just don’t buy that. Sure we have a higher quality of life in some ways, but that generation did know what we know.
For example, I didn’t know to worry about the flu vaccine not being strong enough until my CNN app alerted me. Now add that to the list. I didn’t know that there was a man wielding a knife in the streets three blocks away from my apartment until my citizen app gave me its sound of doom. We have SO much to care about. SO much to monitor. So much to do and most of this stuff we can’t even DO.
No wonder we are all stressed as that is the body’s natural reaction to an emergency and now we are apprised of every emergency. We know about ones as close as blocks away and others 1,000’s of miles and don’t forget the ones right in front of you. And being human, we care. We worry. It is part of our will to survive.
And then add parent to that list…geez double that worry as we have little beings that depend on us. So bring on the drugs (lexipro, etc). I’m not shocked that many of us need some support.
However, I’m finding a new sort of drug / therapy. You may want to try. It has two steps. The first step, delete all the alerts on your phone. There are enough inputs around you. You have enough things to worry about. All additional worries have to be active searches, meaning you have CHOSEN to look for them. Second step, DO SOMETHING to offload them. That could be anything that works to alleviate stress. It could be meditation, (I guess) exercise (science “claims” that this is fun and helps stress…yet to experience this), or in my case give it away to someone more capable.
I plan on giving mine to Mike Bloomberg. Here you go Mike! All yours! You can take global warming for me. Because I can’t do this, but you can.
Want to join me, ladies, in offloading our worries. Want to join me at the beginning of the end of “alerts” that the end is near. Well then come along. I promise to TRY to be there. Jacob just finished treatment, but the sides haven’t hit so not sure what tomorrow will bring so please go. Please go and throw some of my worries out there.
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