My OperaStressful Life
Monday, April 30, 2007 1:29:13 PM
One of my friends always looks so tired in class, sometimes she even falls asleep. Once, I told her to make sure to get enough sleep, or she would fall behind with the study like this. She explained that she couldn’t sleep well at night. When she laid down, there would be many things that were to solve, such as “How to make a progress on study”, “did I forget something important to do today?” The more she thinks of the matter, more difficult she could fall asleep. That’s what we call pressure to prevent her from resting at night. And this is just a part of our social life. It’ obvious that most students have to work under great pressure, let alone the whole society.
It’s an age of “information explosion”. The competition among people becomes fiercer and fiercer. It’s said that people’s lives now is becoming more and more stressful. Most people want to improve their lives, so they work harder and harder, and often keep themselves in tension. In my opinion, people who feel stressful could be divided into two groups: those who tend to be a perfectionist and those who can’t catch the pace of the age. The former ones often push themselves forward. They want to make everything perfect. So the stress comes from their desire. To be exact, the latter are facing lots of questions which are produced by the modern society. There are so many important things or trifles that people have to face so the stress is from the society for the latter.
Relax! —— A word which we used to talk to ourselves when the stress almost stifled us. As a matter of fact, it’s not that easy to calm down and easily escape from the pressure. Maybe the easiest way is to take a deep breath to refresh our mind. Some psychiatrists advise watching a scary movie. It’s said that our nervous tension would relax to a large extent viewing scary movies. There are also some other ways to solve the problem. A “pillow battle” was held recently in a square of a country. It provided a place for people to reduce pressure. I’d like to work with leisure to reduce the unavoidable pressure.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found some tips on stress from http://www.familyservices.govt.nz/info-for-families/skip/stress.html, it may help.
Tips on Stress
Things that could help
• Think about how you react to certain situations. Are there some things that wind you up more than others? Talk about these with someone else and think of ways you can manage.
• Sometimes just accepting "I can’t do anything about it, it’s not my problem" is a relief.
• Set realistic expectations. If you’ve got small children trying to keep the house really tidy is impossible. Set aside a time at the end of the day when you all put the toys away together.
• Exercise. Try to go for a walk three times a week or dig the garden.
• Set aside some time for yourself. Sit and read a book for 10 minutes, or watch TV. Don’t spend all the time when your children are asleep or busy rushing around trying to do things. Use that time for yourself. Unplug the phone and take a bath, write down your feelings, mow the lawn, lie in the sun, ring a friend.
• Make friends. Go to a support group, or join Play centre or Kohanga Reo. Talk with parents of the children your child plays with, as this will lead to friendships that can support you.
Things that won’t help
• Don’t be critical of yourself, no one does everything perfectly all the time.
• Try not to be aggressive towards others, take a deep breath and walk away.
• Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of not eating enough, eating too much, drinking lots of coffee or alcohol.
• Yelling can just wind things up and leave you and your children feeling upset.
• Sometimes going out and about seems too hard and too exhausting. Friends and family are your best support. If you don’t know anyone, think about places where you might meet other parents who are in the same position as you – Playcentre, Kohanga, kindergarten etc.
• Try to avoid getting so tired that everything seems too hard. Try to lie down and relax when your children are asleep. Go to bed early.
Managing your day
When children are small there always seems to be so much to do.
Try to set up routines so you don’t have all the chores piling up on top of each other. Be prepared to alter routines if something else comes up. Don’t worry about the housework if it’s a sunny day and you can go for a walk, or if someone drops in for a chat.
Setting some goals
Set priorities. Some things are more important than others, try to sort out what you really need to do and do other less urgent things when you have time. Set yourself small goals so you feel you’ve achieved something every day. For example you could aim to throw out everything in the fridge that is past its use-by date, or you could aim to spend time reading to your child.
If you are asked to do something that will make you stressed, say no.
If you’re worried
If you are worried that you are feeling very stressed, low or depressed, talk with your doctor.
"I had post-natal depression. I was far away from my family and needed someone to talk to. I talked to my GP for about an hour and when I got back to the car my partner said I was a different person."[/SIZE]
