So many times someone starts talking about stress and it gets so complicated. Stress is really simple “old math” (no to be mistaken with what they teach now as “new math”). Now here is the obligatory description of stress. “The body over riding desire to choke the stuff out of some idiot that is making your life miserable” But how does simple math come into that saying?
It is a simple rule of math that so long as you keep adding to your number it will get larger. As it is in the complicated world of math so it is with stress. As long as you keep adding to your stress you’re going to get more stress. But here is where it gets a little complicated. People think that when you stop adding to the stress that it automatically begins to go down. NOT TRUE.
Enter (key dramatic music) the pressure cooker. That is where you have already stopped the increase of stress but now you have put a tight lid on the boiling pot of your stress. True, you’re not getting any “more” stress. But that lid is putting a whole new quality to the stress you have. Lord help the silly person who happens to be nearby when this lid blows.
Here is where the subtraction comes in. 1. Subtract the heat. The heat is your expectations of forcing an outcome (ie: the illusion of control). Do your best and let it go. You actually have as much control over it as you do the nuclear roulette being played out in the Middle East. 2. Take away some stress with a breath. No matter how busy you are. Sitting back in your chair for 5 seconds and taking a deep breath “breaks the cycle of addition” (pun intended). 3. Subtract stress by adding a massage. Most of us (me included) get so ramped up in what we are doing that we forget that calming ourselves down is a part of that cycle. We forget what it is like to be relaxed, and just “not doing anything” IS NOT relaxing (verb, not adjective). Getting a massage reminds us that “normal” is not 2 degree’s from stroking out! Regular massage can bring down the stored stress level in our bodies and help you to remember to “feel” alive again.
So, stand up straight, take a deep breath, another glass of water and get a massage. So you can add relaxation to your life.
