Stress

Stress is such a strange thing. It's completely invisible - more of a feeling than anything - but you can see it, touch it, etc. It's very real and we all suffer from it in one degree or another. It's also like a bad cold, passing from person to person unknowing.

In college, my psychology professor explained stress like dessert - good occassionally and in small doses. Anything more and it would cause havoc with your health and well being. He went on to describe the good things about stress. It makes you get up in them morning, pushes you to do your best, and helps you function inside of socially acceptable parameters. Good stressors are very helpful and allow us to lead productive lives.

Unfortunately, like dessert, I don't seem to know when I've had enough and seem to think I can keep piling it on without consequence. Some people might interpret that I am a stress-a-holic. This would be a mischaracterization. Stress-a-holics, like work-a-holics, seek it out. They need it and derive some kind of pleasure or payoff from it. This is not my situation at all. I'm more like a stress magnet. I have not yet developed that skill allowing me to repel the stresses that are flung my way and have a hard time peeling them off once they've attached. I'm a stress receptor.

Oh it gets better. Not only do I receive stresses easily, I accept them as my own unknowingly. Yes, I'm an unconscious stress receptor. Funny when you think about it. Why would I do this? Only large psychology bills will solve that one. The real question becomes not why I do this but how do I reverse my poles and start repelling the stresses that come flying my way? How do I change the direction of the stress flinging?

I"m just too stressed out to deal with it. I think I'll have more dessert instead.