A butterfly must struggle to break out of its cocoon. But the struggle to emerge from the cocoon forces the fluid from the butterfly’s body into its wings - a necessary process for enabling it to fly.
- Charles C. Manz
Character, like sweet herbs, should give off its finest fragrance when pressed.
A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure.
The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the other end in an awful hurry.
Death is nature's way of saying "Slow down!"
Make your vocation your vacation.
I have a toy box with an assortment of energy toys in my office - a bola paddle (paddle with ball on a rubber string), a dart board, sunglasses with pop-out eyes, and a kazoo. Whenever I finish with a frustrating meeting or situation, I close my door and get out that paddle to relieve stress and recover my energy.
When bad things happen to you, use the Ready, SET, Go approach:
When my work pile is getting deeper that I can handle or want to handle, I'll let myself get lost in my picture of West Texas bluebonnets on the wall.
50-70 % of medical complaints contain some element of stress. Top 3 drugs: Valium; Tagament (ulcers); Interall (heart control) You can't function under a heavy load all the time. Imagine making a tight fist and holding it for 20 years! Just as you rotate tires so that they wear evenly, so you need to rotate or balance your activities in life.
- John Jensen
- Patsy Fulton
(Other possible contents for your "toy box": clown nose (try putting on one of these the next time someone yells at you - the effect may turn out to be more of an adjustment for the other party than for you!); bubble blower; silly putty; juggling balls; special momentos from past vacations (a piece of shell that you picked up on that beach in the Caribbean, a small rock from that hike in the Grand Canyon (oops - probably a national park violation!), that piece of volcanic rock from the big island of Hawaii, etc.); a transformer (no, not something that connects to a model railroad - ask your kid.)
- Grant M. Bright
S - See it as temporary (will this be a big deal 10 years from now?)
E - Externalize (step back and see the big picture; don't take it personally)
T - Take action (make plan/formula for correction, focus on things you can control)
This will generate a positive frame of mind that is future oriented.
- C. R. Oliver, President, Hydrocarbon Sector, Fluor Daniel, Inc.
- Dr. Peter Atarian (1988)
He who laughs, lasts.
What comes out of you when you are squeezed is what is inside of you.
- Wayne Dyer
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.
- Lin Yutang
When facing a stressful situation, the amount of stress you will feel is inversely proportional to the amount of information you can get.
The other day I got out my can-opener and was opening a can of worms when I thought, "What am I doing?!"
- Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts, Saturday Night Live
15 Steps to Raise Stress:
1. Expect someone else to reduce your stress
2. Decide not to change
3. Act like a victim
4. Try to play a new game using the old rules
5. Try to provide a totally stress-free life environment
6. Try to control the uncontrollable
7. Choose your own pace of change
8. Fail to abandon the expendable
9. Slow down
10. Be afraid of the future
11. Pick the wrong battles
12. Try to psychologically unplug from disagreeable situations
13. Avoid anything new
14. Work on eliminating uncertainty and instability
15. Assume it is the responsibility of others to keep you "comfortable"
- modified from "The Stress of Organizational Change" by Pritchett & Pound
15 Steps to Lower Stress:
1. Invest 30 minutes in vigorous exercise 3 to 5 times a week
2. Learn relaxation techniques
3. Cut down on caffeine
4. Eat right
5. Meditate
6. Develop better time management habits
7. Play
8. Get plenty of sleep
9. Smile more. Laugh. Use humor to lighten your emotional load.
10. Count your blessings - daily
11. Say nice things when you talk to yourself
12. Simplify
13. Set personal goals. Develop a sense of purpose.
14. Forgive
15. Practice optimism and positive expectancy
- modified from "The Stress of Organizational Change" by Pritchett & Pound
Don't count on anybody else coming along to relieve your stress. Put yourself in charge of managing the pressure. You are probably the only one who will, or even can, do much to lighten your psychological load.
In one of our concert pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.
- Theodore Steinway, Pres Steinway & Sons
Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Its always easier to ride the horse in the direction that it's going.
| End of Quotes on "Stress" |