Holiday Stress
Stress is always with us. It can be a motivator or an inhibitor and either helpful or harmful as we live our busy lives.
While it is a bit simplistic, we can think of stress as an ‘energy source.’ There is ‘good stress’ or positive energy that helps us move forward and accomplish things and there is ‘harmful stress’ or negative energy that drags us down or gets in the way. Both kinds of stress seem to increase with holidays and other special occasions in our lives.
Having deadlines, project milestones, or events can help us get done what we want to do. These external or internal measures can mark progress and provide satisfaction as we move through a task, or check off things from a list that we want to do.
Examples might be: a shopping list for our friends for a holiday, or the upcoming publication of a report at work. The excitement of shopping for someone, or the anticipation of a birthday or special event can produce pleasurable feelings and motivate us to wait in a line, or seek out that exciting gift or card.
The feeling of relief or accomplishment when a big report or project is complete also provides a sense of intense satisfaction even though there might have been extra hours, late nights and serious work involved.
On the other hand, the stress of having too much to do with no relief, no way to meet others expectations, the pressure of feeling obligated to provide a ‘holiday experience’ for friends or family can be the source of irritation, anxiety and depression.
If there has been some bad history with a particular holiday or work situation with a colleagues or a certain boss, then normal satisfaction can be replaced by dread, fear of failure and an expectation of ‘more bad stuff to come.’
Meditation is a simple and powerful way to sort out the good and bad stress sources in our lives. It is also a very powerful and helpful practice to add greater enjoyment to the positive influences and to manage and eliminate the negative ones.
Regular meditation allows you to be more ‘in control’ of your emotionsal reactions and hence your emotional well being. The practice can also assist you to identify activities and situations in your life that are hurting you emotionally – and more importantly – formulate strategies to manage or eliminate the harmful things.
Whle there are many strategies to manage busy lives, holiday pressures, difficult work situations and hectic schedules, meditation is one of the fastest and most efffective tools to accomplish these goals.
I have written a full course on how to learn to meditate and discover your own ‘power of meditation’ which is presented on the website by clicking the link above. This course can show you how to understand and manage your stess levels.
Check it out, and leave your comments on the course, or perhaps suggest other tools and strategies that you have found helpful on managing the harmful stressors in your life.
The Power Of Meditation 
The Wizard said,
December 5, 2009 at 10:59 am
Holidays don’t have to be stressful. They can be relaxing and refreshing. Time with family and friends. What is stressful about that?