AN EMAIL ABOUT STRESS

Minkey is right where he wants to be, with Her Excellency of Mousehole. Kramer is right where he wants to be, with Her Excellency of Mousehole. The trouble begins when Her Excellency of Mousehole shows the two that they are occupying the same person.

Minkey would like to eat Kramer, not because Minkey is hungry, mind you, but because then Kramer would be out of the way. He growls and hisses and then...licks his lips. Kramer just wants to be friends but with a growling, hissing, licking-his-chops cat mere inches away it's difficult to remember why he wants to be friends.

This is stress for the animal kingdom.

I'm taking the easy way out tonight. This is from an email forward. I hope it will help someone. The list of things at the end is something someone tacked on and you've heard all of them before. There were a couple that spoke to me and so I'm leaving them there. Some, of course are silly but that's like life. Knowledge, good advice and something stupid just to see if we are paying attention.

STRESS

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can."


So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.



Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

SIX WORDS FOR HOW TO HANDLE STRESS

Learn to act like a dog.

FOR THOSE OF US WHO TAKE LIFE TOO SERIOUSLY

This quote came in an email yesterday. It's a wee bit irreverent--pun unintended--so if you are easily offended don't read.

This is great advice. Let's live our life today with the attitude of a dog.

"Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Pee on it and walk away."

PS Now don't go doing anything embarrassing! This is only a metaphor.

COPING IS A HABIT?

I got an email from my cousin today. He is a retired college professor, a psychologist. He's brilliant. He's charming, too. Being charming runs in the family. Whether or not I got the charming gene is up for debate.

He was telling me about a book he is writing and the following quote is about a mini-version of part of the book: "...a short course on the nature of the mind-brain-body-reality systems and what might be done to help a person improve their habits of coping with the challenges they face."

I have never thought of coping as a habit. I have always thought of coping as something dreaded that you had to do because something unpleasant--or worse--had happened. Coping was something I didn't want to do because I didn't want to be in the situation that made it necessary in the first place. I would rather be like the ostrich with it's head in the sand--even though I know ostrich's don't stick their heads in the sand.

If coping is a habit I should be able to break it down into steps. That would make the nature of the task easier, right? I guess I'll find out as I pursue this mini-course with my brilliant, charming cousin. I'm anxious to learn how to have the habit of coping with my challenges, one of which might be that I didn't get that elusive charming gene.



I hope this mini-course isn't too stressful.

MY LESSON TODAY IN RELIEF SOCIETY ON JOURNAL KEEPING

I am not the best journal keeper. It seems whenever I have to give a lesson I pick a subject that I, myself need. I DO write my personal history stories, usually one a week--I started this in in October of 2006--my good friend, Pam started this group, for which I will always be grateful--so I have about 70 stories written, a few of them are recorded on this blog.

The following are my favorite parts of my lesson. My very favorite parts are written in dark red. All the references can be found on LDS.org, under Gospel Library, then under Magazines. The one reference I took from the Internet has the URL.

I hope you will realize that your blogs are a form of Journals. But, perhaps like you, I don't back-up my blog. So, if it disappears so will every thing I have written. Not that it's great literature or anything but.... Maybe we should think of saving our blogs, somehow.


Lynne's Talk on Journal Keeping--given May 4th, 2008 in Relief Society in the Edgemont 6th Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"… I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us—and as our posterity read of our life’s experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.

"...What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved? Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

"...We hope you will do this, our brothers and sisters, for this is what the Lord has commanded, and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives." (“President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals,” New Era, Dec 1980, 26)


"Journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and other health conditions.
It improves cognitive functioning.
It strengthens the immune system, preventing a host of illnesses.
It counteracts many of the negative effects of stress."
(The Benefits of Journaling for Stress Management Elizabeth Scott, M.S., http://stress.about.com/od/generaltechniques/p/profilejournal.htm )

"The following are some of President Kimball’s suggestions for what to write about:
• Friendships
• Your testimony
• Accomplishments
• Blessings you receive
• Things you do, say, or think
• Things that make you happy
• Things you like about yourself
• Experiences with the Holy Ghost
• Challenges and how you handled them"
(“President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals,” Ensign, Dec. 1980, 61)

Family and Personal Histories
“Elizabeth thumbed through several of the binders, reliving volume by volume much of her father’s life. Then her eyes rested upon a title: ‘To My Family on the Sixtieth Anniversary of My Birth.’ That event had passed some twelve years ago. Slowly Elizabeth read through the paragraphs. They told of the old family home, of her grandparents, and of her mother. Her father had written expressions to each of his children. A gentle peace settled over Elizabeth as she read through the lines written to her. She felt as though her father were still present, speaking to her personally. All too soon, the paragraphs closed: ‘I want you to continue to be faithful and obedient until you come to know Him [the Savior] as I know Him.’ “As she had read, a resolve grew in Elizabeth’s heart to follow her parents’ noble example and to strengthen the family ties they had cherished” (Relief Society Courses of Study 1977–78, 8).

…Not everything we write is important. Not everything we think is important. But occasionally we are in tune with God. Inspiration sometimes comes to us without our even recognizing it. At such times the Lord whispers things into our minds, and what one then writes can become inspirational to one’s descendants. When we write by the Spirit and they read by the Spirit, there is a godly communication between us and them which makes that which we write become meaningful and a source of inspiration to our descendants. (Theodore M. Burton, Ensign, Jan. 1977)

"...Since the beginning of time, Heavenly Father has commanded his children to keep personal records of their lives. And modern prophets have encouraged us to keep journals throughout our lives." (I neglected to copy the reference for this quote.)

"...Our worries can become less worrisome and our fears less fearful when we write them down. Explaining our thoughts and feelings on paper can help relieve us of the turmoil and distress we might have felt. Expressing private feelings on paper can help to heal private hurts.

"Our journals should become our own books of personal revelation. If we are careful and diligent in recording the promptings and insights we receive, we will begin to see a pattern of how the Spirit works in our lives. We will become more aware of the fact that we are indeed being guided in ways that we may not have recognized, and we will become more responsive to these thoughts, ideas, and influences as they come to us. We can be blessed as we write about our prayers and answers to prayers, our scriptural understandings, and our struggles to draw closer to the Lord." (Gawain and Gayle J. Wells, “Hidden Benefits of Keeping a History,” Ensign, Jul 1986)

"Many of us have tried to find written material on our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. Generally, the earlier the generation, the less information about their lives we can find. Will our posterity meet with the same frustrations we have experienced when they search out information about our lives?

"Do we want our posterity to make the same mistakes we have? Or do we want them to know of the testimonies we have of the gospel and what experiences gave us those testimonies?" (Jimmy B. Parker, “A Record of Our Kingdoms,” Ensign, Aug 1976)

In conclusion, Journals provide the stories of our trials, triumphs, hurts and joys so that our posterity might have faith that they can persevere through their trials, triumphs, hurts and joys. That they might see we triumphed so that through the Savior’s atonement we can all sit down together in heaven.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

STRESS + TIME = HUMOR

I heard a great quote today on the radio. I'd give credit but I'm down with a nasty cold and didn't catch who said it. Perhaps he didn't originate it anyway, but at any rate I apologize.

"Stress plus time equals humor."

If you don't believe it read the my blog "A story from the past, Phil's Turn to get up with Bentley." (September 15. 2007) This was NOT funny at the time. It was a major stress for all of us but, hey, it's funny now.

Carol Tuttle, a woman with great insight--buy her book, Remembering Wholeness--you won't be disappointed--says we don't live in the present. We live in the past or the future. We fret over the past, we do the should'have's, could'have's, would'have's. I've done this several thousand times. I should have taught the kids better, should have had Family Home Evening better, should have read the scriptures with them better--there's a list so long that I couldn't list them all.

Or we live in the future. What if such and such happens or what if such and such doesn't happen?

Pretty soon our stress level is beyond measure.

Then we get sick. Like today for me. Or we get depressed. Or we decide to cut our losses and run. There are lots of things people run from--relationships, religion, jobs, marriages--some people just clam up and don't talk. That's running too. Or we blame someone else.

I don't necessarily have any answers how not to live in the past or the future but I know if we lived in the present we'd be better off. Right now my handout for tomorrow--I have to teach in Relief Society--is frozen. I know that it will probably stay frozen and I'll have to close it down and start all over. See, living in the future. Anyway, it will be funny tomorrow but not right now as I really want to go to bed or have Phil rub my feet and tell me I'm a wonderful person or I want to sit in front of the fire and eat hot popcorn with browned butter. Well, maybe not. Maybe tomorrow, when I'll be completely well. Or...maybe I'll be completely well right now, in the present.

Anyway, it's worth looking at, this stress business, given some time, becoming funny. And it's worth looking into living in the present too.