Stress Less?

I’ve been a bit stressed lately. Papers to submit, Presentations to work on, wondering what I’m going to cook for the next meal, you know, preoccupied with the mundane. And as always, I got the ever-helpful advice from many -Stress less. So many reasons accompany this very wise formula. Stress is terrible for your health. It’s telling on your looks. You’ll get an ulcer. It’s not going to accomplish anything. Etc.Etc.Etc.

But isn’t it one of those things, that’s easier said than done? It made me realize that even if I could eliminate the things stressing me out, which is another thing that’s easier said than done, but even If I could, would my life really be stress-free?

Or would all my time be preoccupied with a new worry? Does stress ever really go away? Or is it merely replaced by new anxieties and preoccupations? For this anxious overthinker at least, it will always be the latter.

And if you’re anything like me, then this blog post, up until now, has been a pretty depressing read, I’m sorry. Let’s dwell on something more helpful instead.

I wonder if the only way to battle stress is to replace it. And since we always seem to be replacing it with newer anxieties, maybe it’s time to consider another replacement. What if we replace the time spent stressing about something fairly worrying and negative with something that makes us happy?

I figure you can’t free up all that time in your mind, and by extension your life, and not fill it with something else. Mostly we forget that we have the power to do that, and so our mind takes over and replaces that stress with another worry. But if we actively replace it with a new hobby, or some positive quotes, or even bring to the surface a happy memory, maybe, just maybe we really can stress less *gasp*

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. I’m not even saying it always works. But I figure it’s worth a shot. It may not be much. Perhaps just a few truly stress-free moments, before you start worrying all over again. But we have nothing to lose and a lot of peace of mind to gain if it turns out to be true.

At any rate, it’s better than the alternative.