Today I want to talk about stress. Living through this pandemic we all have come to understand stress more that ever, but I'm not going to talk about Covid today. I'm going to talk about stress that influences daily behavior.

Last night I did not sleep well at all. Yesterday I was making lunch, helping the kids with school and life, doing paperwork--basic multitasking--when someone texted me out of the blue and dumped a huge emotional load on me, making me responsible for their troubles.

What made this difficult was they were demanding I take on their fear and grief. As a counselor I am willing and able to help others deal with what life has dealt them, even carrying their burdens for awhile, so that wasn't what hurt. Being over the top already I acknowledged the pain and kinda stuffed it down to deal with later. Not my best idea ever.

In life there are two main types of stress. There is good stress and there is bad stress.

Good stress can be uncomfortable but it helps you achieve more. It can push you to do things like study more for an exam to improve a grade, push yourself to beat your best time in a race, or perfect that soufflé you've been working on. It is by your choice and for your betterment.

Bad stress is uncomfortable as well, but what we see is it can be sudden, prolonged and not yours to handle. It can drain your adrenals and cause all manner of disruptions in your life; physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc...

When I couldn't sleep last night you can guess what kind of stress I was dealing with. Yep. Bad stress. I woke up gritting my teeth and thinking cyclical thoughts. I tossed and turned, praying angrily. As I became fully awake I realized what I was doing. I let out the breath I was holding and came before the throne of God earnestly, broken and vulnerable.

I found relief. Hope, even.

My bad stress became good stress. My despair turned to joy. While the details of my source of stress haven't changed, how I am dealing with them has. This blog was born through the struggle of managing my stress in a healthy way.

This is the beginning of a series on stress management. Next time I'll talk about the relationship between control and stress.

If you need help managing your stress and don't want to wait for the next entry to come out, please visit my website www.beachglasscounseling.com and fill out a contact form. We can schedule an appointment right away.

God bless!

Picture credit: Photo by Rendy Novantino on Unsplash