Stress: It’s the Little Things That Matter

Just spoke at the Ann Arbor women’s expo- “Overcoming Stress Through Heart Centered Living.” I was amazed at what I learn each time I speak. The talk was an introduction to eliminating stress, but what struck me was how the the little things in life could be stressful.We like to think that it’s the big things (at least I do) critical illness, having someone we’re close to die, or losing our job- that create stress. Yet, two particpants at the talk remarked that sleeping too much or not sleeping enough was really stressful to them.I sleep well. I always have. So it really made me think that everyones experience in life is different. Not everyone relates to life like I do. So difficulty with sleeping could be a very stressful event for someone.

I began thinking that its really the little things in life that matter, that can lead to damaging stress. It’s the spouse that snores. It’s the boss who looks at us a certain way. These are the things that can really make us uptight and ultimately lead to illness.

Stress is subjective. Stress is what we make of it. Jeff Gordon can drive a race car 200 miles an hour and it probably seems like a Sunday drive. While this would scare the buggers out of me. And often it’s the routine things in life that really get caught in our craw. Traffic, small persistent annoyances at work, or irritating habits- it’s the mundane events that don’t go the way we’d like them to go that stresses us out.

Stress is of 2 types: the stressful events you can change and those that are beyond our control. If we can make some progress on the first type, by changing what is in our power to change then the second type can become more manageable. If I walk in the door to my house and I’ve not let the traffic bug me, then I’m better able to accomodate the stress of family matters.It makes sense, but its something we need to be reminded of on a daily basis.