…and swear. It’s stress.
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS…things like the bra strap that pinches just so; not quite painful or distressing enough for you to snap it off there and then in a disgruntled huff, but come the end of the day and you’re irate, at the end of your tether and climbing the walls.
Okay, so that’s not you. It’s me. And yes, it’s my bra. Not yours.
More often than not, we associate the term “stress” with the “big” things such as death, unmanageable workloads, recalcitrant children (really, do they make children any other way?), unreasonable bosses (no, no, definitely not mine…), or even the spurious spouse.
For me it was my wallet. Well, I could actually rattle off a litany of little things that make you sweat, but my wallet was the one thing that bugged me without me actually being completely conscious of it.
It was designed in such a way that it made locating my credit cards difficult. Of course, it didn’t help one bit that it was also stuffed senseless with more receipts and loyalty cards than it was with cash and credit cards, you know, the really useful stuff.
This caused me quite a bit of stress at check-out lines, especially when the cashiers started drumming their fingers on the cash register or when the folk behind me rolled their eyes at one another. The minute I have paid up and struggled to get the credit card or change back into the wretched wallet, I would swear that I’d re-organize it, only to forget this as soon as the first bag of groceries is unceremoniously tossed into the trunk of my car.
On a whim, I bought and used a new pouch (not a wallet), and it was only after using it for about a week that I realized how much the other one stressed me out. That’s when it hit home that “stressors” are, more often than not, the little imperceptible things in life that once identified and rectified, gives you such an amazing sense of relief.
So check out this month’s four-part Focus on stress; how you can deal with it (It’s all in your head, page 34), it can do to you if you don’t get on top of it (The hidden dangers of stress, page 36), how to combat stress (Stressed? Start moving! Page 38) and stop yourself from reacting stress by eating (Stop stress from making you fat! Page 40).
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not so much “sweatin’ the small stuff”, but identifying the little buggers in the first place that can save you from tearing your hair out…and not know why you’re doing it.
*For the full article please refer to Shape September 2011 Issue
