So stress is the body’s reaction to any change that needs an adjustment or a response so says Cleveland Clinic. What I like particularly about this explanation of what stress is, is that it doesn’t call it good or bad, it’s a normal reaction to change. Remember that time in our lives when stress was the devils better twin brother that you had to get rid of as it resulted in terrible life experiences? But the year is 2019 and stress is the body’s natural reaction to change. And these reactions can be physical, mental, emotional or all at once.
It just is
I’m going to say it on more just so that we are clear that stress is the body’s natural reaction to change. What this tells us is that seasons could change and your body will naturally react with stress. It tells us that you could get a promotion or be demoted and your body will naturally react with stress. You could go from single to in a relationship, hot to cold, undergrad to graduate, the night before your first day at school and your first day at school and your body will naturally react with stress. The stress is going to happen we can’t avoid it but exactly how can we ensure that it doesn’t take us out? Just do the work!
The cold truth
During one exam season at my high school our principal held a meeting with all of the matriculants because we were stressed out due to our end of year finals, trying to plan what we would be doing the following year and still fulfill our duties as school mentors, hand in assignments and try not to give our teachers high blood pressure because we certainly were an outspoken bunch.
We attended the meeting hoping he would authorize a few extensions and even maybe give us a few sprinkles of ‘day off’ coupons and maybe even an all expenses paid vacation to Sun City. Instead, this past middle-aged, short, salt and peppered haired man cleared his throat and said, “If you are stressed and you don’t want to be, just do the work. You are stressed because you have lots of work right?” Eagerly waiting for the all-expenses vacation to Sun City announcement we chorused “YES!” but he continued to respond with “The only way to make sure that you go from stressed to not stressed is to do the work.”
Of course, we didn’t get it or seem to want to get it and we probably called him everything except his name but we had to have gone about our merry ways and did the work because the school didn’t hear from us again, especially not about how stressed we were. We ranked in at least the top 10 in our district for best results produced according to my memory. So boom doing the work is an entire science. But please be kind to yourself after all you are your primary human experience. Below is our template for doing the work, it’s sweet short and to the point.
