Well I just had one of those paradigm shifting experiences last night, a local trust, Tableside (who have a great website), had organised a seminar for men on coping with stress, led by Dr John McEwan (who needs to update his website badly). The funny thing was, I thought I was going to it so I could share the information with other people who really needed it. It came as a shock to realise, early on in the night as John explained the causes and physiological symptoms of stress, that I have spent the last few years being pretty highly stressed. Aparently all change causes stress. This was news to me, I have had a lot of change in my life in the last few years, and near constant change, but as it was almost all good, and almost everything was going my way, I couldn't understand why I was feeling so irritable and lethargic, not to mention all the minor health issues cropping up for no good reason (stress depresses your immune system, among other things).
It is hard to describe how good it feels to realise I've been stressed these last few years and to know now how to avoid it and manage it better in the future. One funny symptom of being stressed is that your body wants to expell the hormones it is producing under stress through tears and so you cry more easily, for the last few years I have been suprised to find myself tearring up at the most pathetic sentimental pap on telly or in magazines, despite feeling emotionally unmoved the tears would start flowing, sometimes quite liberally! Now I can hopefully move to a new life where I am not always pretending "there's just something in my eye." :-)
Oh yes, and the good news, being creative is stress reducing, so blogging is good for you after all! :-D
Interesting Jonathan, thanks. We've had a lot of change in the last 5 years and have felt the effects. Hopefully things will settle a bit now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Tableside too. I was in Brian's class when they were starting that, so it was good to see what they are up to.
All the best for the new job. When do you start?
Hey Robyn, thanks, we'll be moving/starting in Jan. One of the things you have to look out for is that something bad happening, which you think shouldn't knock you over that much, can have a much greater effect because of the cumulative stress that you have from positive changes which you don't think of as stressful, but physiologically have been. So even lot sof good change can leave you vulnerable when something does hit the fan!
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