Stress Management

[Cydol]

Does anyone have advice on how to manage stress? I'm at an extremely stressful school. I also have work and volunteering which aren't helping much either. It's gotten so bad that I've practically stopped sleeping, and I've started hallucinating. Come to think of it, most of my hallucinations are religious, but that's besides the point. Can anyone help me?

 

[Anti Existance]

You can only have 'so and so much hay' on your fork. Too much hay on your fork will be too heavy and make your life unbearable so..

Put down work that you are unable to do, cut down on your efforts in things that are useless (playing violin or piano) or something in that context, look. School is important, but volenteering is even more important because in that is what we do the work of God for, so i advice not to let that down. Now of course that depends on the type of volenteering. Workaholic is what comes to my mind. You must divide your work properly and cut down workload and make priorities in your life, and let the less important things fall out.

 

[bethdinsmore]

Good advice. And I would check with my doctor if I were sleepless and hallucinating. It could also have a medical base.

If workaholism or perfectionism is a big problem, a Christian recovery group such as Overcomers Outreach could be extremely helpful. I know you'd have to give up something else meantime, but it would make a huge difference in the long run.

God bless you, friend. I will pray.
Aloha in Jesus

 

[Cydol]

You can only have 'so and so much hay' on your fork. Too much hay on your fork will be too heavy and make your life unbearable so..

Put down work that you are unable to do, cut down on your efforts in things that are useless (playing violin or piano) or something in that context, look. School is important, but volenteering is even more important because in that is what we do the work of God for, so i advice not to let that down. Now of course that depends on the type of volenteering. Workaholic is what comes to my mind. You must divide your work properly and cut down workload and make priorities in your life, and let the less important things fall out.

I was actually considering dropping the volunteering because I have to go to school and I have to work. I volunteer as a secretary at a hospital. I am both a workaholic and a perfectionist actually. Thanks for the advice both of you.

 

[Johnnz]

I suspect your family background is behind your drive. Feel free to PM me if you want to give me some details and see where we go from there.

John
NZ

 

[Nashboo]

Try to find something that you enjoy doing such as reading, art, running, movies, music...anything. i find that by using my mind to do something i enjoy helps releave a ton of stress.

 

[VVV]

Does anyone have advice on how to manage stress? I'm at an extremely stressful school. I also have work and volunteering which aren't helping much either. It's gotten so bad that I've practically stopped sleeping, and I've started hallucinating. Come to think of it, most of my hallucinations are religious, but that's besides the point. Can anyone help me?

Here is an old post on Depression and Stress Written for a 12 step group. Will send in one on volunteerism and VS after this one.




I found that my depression and stress sickness was greatly helped when I started to work on repairing the wreckage of the past that was constantly being fueled by my various addictions. From years of practicing various addictions I had dug a deep hole for myself and my family. The bigger mess I made, the more stress I created for myself and the more depression and hopelessness arose from my wrong lifestyle. Once I started to restructure my life in the direction of recovery, the benefits started showing up at my door. One thing was certain, I could not keep my old sick life and get better as well. Something had to go.

Living an unbalanced life really contributed to my depression. Stress and depression go hand in hand, then we get sick from the stress and the depression and stress just gets worse and it becomes a death spiral. Meditation and mindfulness helped me as well as my joining the simple living movement. Without time for contemplative practices and relaxation I am sunk. This is an almost top necessity for me. I tell those that say they have no time to relax to get into voluntary simplicity. If you can't keep up, scale back until you can keep up. I need to eat right and sleep right and exercise right as well. Many foods help trigger crazy thinking and can lead to depression, especially the salty and chemical rich, artificial factory foods. This is much easier to see once we clean up our diet.

Besides nutrition and getting the proper vitamins I have to work in spiritual areas as well. I need a balance to live right - not 100% spiritual and not 100% physical, but need to blend the two seamlessly for balanced recovery. 12 step work as well as personal religious and spiritual studies helped me in this area. I find that sometime spiritual practitioners neglect the natural laws that govern our bodies and suffer in this area from lack of living a balanced life. Some of us forget we are spiritual beings residing in physical bodies living in physical world and governed my both spiritual and physical or natural laws in addition to man made laws. We need some effort with spiritual work and some effort in physical work for a good balance or as the Buddha recommended - taking the middle path. Joining the simple living movent in 1996 also helped with reducing stress and giving me a new life.

I am lucky to be able to recover in these areas using natural methods. Other persons suffering from depression might have a chemical imbalance in the brain and need medical advice and special medications. If this is the case, it is a matter of doing the footwork in all these medical areas to find out what can be done. Depression can stem from many areas but once thing is for sure, If we dedicate ourselves to work on getting better and making a better life for us we can almost always improve our life in a positive direction and make progress.

Adrenal steroids (cortisol) secreted when a person is under stress reach the brain and over time can affect the structure of the brain. When stress hormones, intended for a life or death fight or flight situation, remain switched for an extended period, they can slow the growth of nerve fibers in the areas of the brain responsible for emotions and other brain functions. We also produce cortisol from any other stressors the body perceives, whether it is physical stress, such as a sickness, injury, surgery, or temperature extremes as well as psychological stress that we and the world put on us.

Each of us has produces a different amount of these chemicals and has a different sensitivity to them and this might be the missing link as to a part of the question as to why some of us are more addictive than others with how we each produce and react to these stress chemicals differently. Besides fat, anger and depression can be helped with exercise. Exercise helps remove these stress chemicals from our bodies as well as produce other chemicals that give us a sense of well being - endorphins. Yes, we have our own drug pusher within each of us. We can learn to reduce the urge to pacify ourselves with food, drugs, alcohol, compulsive spending from stress, but really need to work on restructuring our lives so they are less stressful if we ever want to find peace and serenity. You see, 12 steps or not, we all have to answer to natural law. Within the boundaries of natural law is where stress chemicals come from within us and as addicts I believe we are super sensitized to these chemicals and we seek relief though our various addictions. So, as addicts we should be in tune with using any tools available to us for recovery purposes whether it is the spiritual tools of meditation and 12 step work or the mechanical tools of eating right and exercise.


Here is a small snip from Psychotherapy Toady regarding the benefits of exercise with addiction.

Why does exercise have such an impact on the emotional brain? Naturally, there is, first of all, its effect on endorphins. These tiny molecules secreted by the brain resemble opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin. The emotional brain contains many receptors for endorphins, and that's why it is so sensitive to opium-it immediately radiates a sensation of well-being and satisfaction by hijacking one of the emotional brain's own intrinsic mechanisms. Opium has a powerful effect on emotions-in fact, it's the strongest known antidote to the pangs of separation and mourning. However, when derivatives of opium are used too often, they can become habit forming. Brain receptors become inured to them, so the dose must be systematically increased in order to produce the same effect. Moreover, because the receptors become less and less sensitive, regular pleasures lose all their power and potency-including sex, the pleasure of which is often reduced in drug addicts.

The secretion of endorphins brought on by physical exercise does exactly the opposite. The more the natural mechanism of pleasure is gently stimulated by exercise, the more sensitive the mechanism itself becomes. In addition to relishing sex and life's other big pleasures, people who exercise regularly actually get more pleasure out of the little things in life: their friendships, their cats, their meals, their hobbies, or even the smiles of passersby in the street. Essentially, it becomes easier for them to be satisfied, And in fact, the experience of pleasure is just the opposite of depression. Depression is defined, above all, by the absence of pleasure, more so than by sadness, which is probably the reason why the release of endorphins has such a potent antidepressant and anxiolytic effect. Stimulating the emotional brain by exercise also kindles the immune system. It promotes the proliferation of "natural killer" cells, making them more aggressive against infections and cancer cells. The opposite effect occurs with heroin addicts, whose immunedefenses collapse, often causing them to become gravely ill.

Exercise may also strengthen another physiological mechanism related to emotional health. This mechanism involves what we have already learned about heart rate variability. "'People who exercise regularly show a greater variability in heart rate and more coherence than people who do not. This means that their parasympathetic system, the physiological "brake" that brings on periods of calm, is healthier and stronger. A good balance between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system is one of the best potential antidotes to anxiety and panic attacks. All the symptoms of anxiety start with an overactive sympathetic system, a dry mouth, accelerated heartbeat, sweating, trembling, a rise in blood pressure. The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are always in opposition. Thus, the more stimulation the parasympathetic branch receives, the stronger it becomes-like a developing muscle.




V (Male)

A Christian-Buddhist practitioner living a life of Voluntary Simplicity and grateful recovering Debtor, Drug and Substance Abuser, Compulsive Overeater, Clutterer, Rageaholic, Speculative Gambler, Compulsive Spender, Sex and Sensation Addict.

 

[VVV]

Volunteerism and the Addict


Read about an overweight woman on one list that is suffering from many addictions. She recounted her various volunteer jobs with church, board meetings, bake sales, pig roast, Junior League, hospital fundraisers, etc. She also detailed how she hated her life and how out of control she felt. Hubby told her to scale back on being a volunteer and start making time for herself. Sounds like husband has good insight. Many wives don't like to listen to husbands - many husbands don't like to listen to wives. Sometimes they have good advice and sometimes not. In this case the advice sounds good. Charity begins at home. If our own house in not in order, we have no business making things worse for us - if we are serious about getting better. If you are ever confused with which direction to go and your recovery work is ego based, then try this method. Try increasing the area in question and see if that fixes you. And if not, try decreasing it and see what happens. You will get the answer and your ego can be satisfied and you wont have to listen to anyone tell you what is the right thing to do.

I see many fat volunteers - volunteering for everything other than getting better. No time to eat right or exercise but plenty of time to get fatter and volunteer for everything under the sun. Same with the other addictions, not just overeaters. Volunteerism is a good distraction from working on repairing the wreckage of the past. On page 90 of the AA's 12 and 12 the writers mention how the addict cannot afford "justifiable anger" and it should be left to those better qualified to handle it. With reference to this statement -- it is gospel - there is no argument here. But, I am here to remind you that besides justified anger, there are HUNDREDS of other things that the addict cannot "afford" in their life. In short, we have to ask if our recovery program can "afford" the many things we come into daily contact with and the measure of our success will be determined by how well we live within our comfortable means by asking this "affordability" question.

Yes, being a volunteer can be very rewarding if we can comfortably and affordably give ourselves to the project. We have to decide if we can afford to give ourselves away when we don't really own what we are giving...which is ourselves. Remember, addicts don't own themselves, the addiction owns us.** How can a person say what they can afford to give without clarity about what they have and own? The sick addict never got balanced up, so how can they know what they can comfortably give in their life without resorting to robbing Peter to pay Paul? The sick addict has no idea of what it takes in terms of time, energy and finances to live a healthy and balanced life. The question that the compulsive volunteer must ask themselves is: do they have a real and burning desire to get better or not? If so, they must see a radical change in their old way of thinking and doing things and if they continue to think as they always thought they will continue to get what they always got! Without this new change, all they have is their old, sick life back. I recently read a bumper sticker from a charitable group that said, "Service before Self." While this sounds wonderful, addicts cannot afford to live this way in my opinion.

Debtors and self-debtors like to spend what they don't have and cannot pay back, and so do other addicts that lose themselves in everyone else's business other than the business of their own recovery. If you are waiting until life is perfect before you do volunteer work it probably won't happen. Shoot for a 80% perfection rate as well as developing a pattern of seeking balanced decision making with everything you do in life. Personally I do little or no volunteer work. I can't afford it. Most of my energies are spent just keeping myself and my familles head above water. Charity begins at home for me. I just can't afford taking care of everyone else if I want to continue to live a healthy and recovered life. I am in 8-12 step programs and 2 non-12 step recovery programs and have no time for it. You can read what Thoreau has to say about charity in Walden. Some chronic volunteers do it out of a need to feel wanted or to feel important and satisfy their ego. Others do it out of a real need to help others, but get lost in this need and become blinded to thier own needs and end up killing themselves off by overextending themselves.

You cannot buy self worth by being out of balance in any area. Yes, volunteerism and charity work can help build self worth, but just like other good things in life, the addict becomes excessive and thinks "if a little is good, then more must be even better" and he or she turns the good into the bad. So, it is much better to work in a balanced and proportional amount of volunteer or charity work than the unbalanced way the addict resorts to when they try to buy their self worth with over-volunteerism. If we are talking about the self centered, greedy and selfish addict, then I'd prescribe doing more volunteer work to get them out of themselves and add some well needed traits of generosity and charity into their lives. When we wish to counter a negative or unwanted trait we can treat it by applying the opposite trait. For example, the self-debtors need to be a little more stingy with others and concentrate more on their own well being and the selfish addict needs to concentrate on others more instead of themselves. But, this must all be done in balance, as addicts love to apply the all or none method and see only black or white with no shades of gray. Write your own inventory work in this area and find out what drives you to excess.

Here are the 7 benefits we derive from our addictions. See what applies to you. (This list is abbreviated, if you want the unabbreviated list write me direct.)

1) Pain Reliever

Addictions help distract us from our pain.

2 Pressure Relief

We use addictions to help blow off stream from stressed and unbalanced life we live though overextending ourselves to the point of breaking by living a lifestyle of "jugglers syndrome" and by having too many irons in the fire.

3) Time Filler

The devil finds work for idle hands - Thoreau. Many time I have heard an addict say they went to their addiction out of boredom cause they had nothing else to do to pass time.

4) Escape Vehicle

Addictions make great escape vehicles to distract us from our problems - most of what we have created for ourselves by living unbalanced lives.
I try and catch myself when I practice this escapism and work to bring my thoughts back to the present. Whenever the fantasy starts I check to see what I am escaping from? Why do I fixate on something else instead of where I'm at?

5) Pleasure Vehicle

As sensation addicts we like the sensation we get when we participate in our addiction. It feels good to receive the brain chemicals or high I get when I participate in my drug of choice. In short, if it feels good I over do it and keep doing it until it turns into pain - then and only then I know I need to stop.

6) Mystical or Religious Experience

Yes, our addiction is our religion. All our addictions have pleasure aspects within them and we get rewards for participating in them in the form of euphoric experiences. Euphoric experience can be related to the spiritual as well. The definition of a religious mystic is one that partakes in an altered state of conciseness with God / god or the spiritual realm. Our addictions also give us this altered state of consciousness and feeling of euphoria. So, we can say that our drugs are our gods and our addiction is our religion. There is a reason to our madness - it is not just pure madness as most addicts think.

7) Death Sentence

Finally, if all else fails - addictions are great killers and destroyers of life. We hate the life we have created for ourselves and see no other way out.

I come into contact with many addicts that loose themselves in volunteerism when their own house in not in order. (I do not only mean their physical house, as many clutterers houses are still a mess, I mean their physical, spiritual and mental "house" as well.) I see many fat volunteers that could be at the gym exercising or preparing and eating healthy foods or attending OA or other compulsive eating recovery meetings. Believe me, it takes a tremendous amount of time to prepare healthy food and exercise properly. They could also spend some time writing personal inventory or even meditating and relaxing and instead are just getting fatter by the minute by losing themselves in others work and not eating right and not exercising. It is their choice how to run their lives, but how can they complain about their addiction when they do not want to pay the price of recovery and start work at home where the work needs to be done? One addict on a debt list wrote in how he was so happy that he had come into a recent financial windfall and was planning to buy so many things with this money cause it was "free" money to spend. When I questioned him about his credit card debts, house loan, kids college fund, medical fund, car replacement fund, retirement fund, his contingency fund, home repair and appliance fund, vacation fund, car repair fund and the rest he said he had not thought about these areas and all of sudden this money was not free to spend any more. He saw there were many areas lacking in his life that he had not planned for and was oblivious to. It is the same with the chronic volunteers that neglect many areas and rob from them to overextend themselves in this area of volunteerism.

What about the debtors that would rather work for free as a volunteer instead of working for money to pay their debt off? Is working for mere money beneath them? If they are driven to such an extreme measure of charity and service in their lives that is fine. But, go the distance and don't be a thief by running up debts that they have no intention of paying. Join a religious order or the Peace Corp where your debts and living expenses are taken care of and then devote yourself to the service to others. To expect to work for free with no intention of taking care of your responsibilities and debts is not practical and sustainable living. Now, no one can force a debtor to work overtime to pay their bills and I do not recommend stressing yourself out by overwork, but also do not recommend working for free if you have large debts to pay down either. I do recommend doing more spiritual work for yourself to restructure your life so you do not need to depend on debt to get by. Restructure your life so you have time to relax your brain and get balanced up, then you can worry about being charitable. Accepting your comfortably means and capabilities is the foundation of successful recovery.

This type of thinking was first crystallized for me many years ago when my 5th grade son started with football back in 1996. I was just starting to think about balanced living back then. I lived a very unbalanced life myself, so it was a natural thing for me to study how balanced or unbalanced others lives were so I could learn from them. I copied the balanced peoples lifestyle that could be applied to me and did the opposite of the unbalanced ones. The volunteer football coach put in plenty of generous hours with the kid and also had a big pot belly. I thought to myself, "Too much coaching...not enough sit ups." Sounds judgmental to you? Well, don't forget - you cannot deem me judgmental unless you yourself have "judged" me to be judgmental as well. So you see how silly it is when addicts go around telling others they are judgmental - it is like the pot calling the kettle black. this is all part of your wrong thinking that perpetuates losing yourself in volunteerism land, so change your ideas that keep you beaten down. If you missed my earlier post called "Being judgmental in a positive way" write me for a copy.

Short reminders and self starters helps keep me on track and is how my ADD mind operates best when it comes to recovery thoughts. So, whether it is "If it doesn't fit you must acquit" or "Everything you own take a little peace ~ piece of you" or in the case of this volunteer football coach "Too much coaching and not enough sit ups" or any of the other ones I spout off - this is what works for me. Complex recovery concepts do nothing for me, so be aware of this in your own recovery search. When I read one of Deepak Chopra's books on how to eat right, I didn't get much out of it as it was too complex for me. Long, complex recovery concepts do little for me, this is why I seek simplicity in recovery and in life. When I think of the food pyramid, balanced eating, and recording food and calories I have great success. Do what works for you and don't overcomplicate life. Instead of judging my work as "judgmental" and showing your own prejudices and ego based program at work try terming my recovery work as simplified and truth based, that way you will not block out proven recovery concepts that I or other share with you.

Addicts of all sorts must first balance their own lives before addling complexities to it, if they want to see what can comfortably fit into their lives. Many addicts suffer from the condition of trying to fix or save the entire world. Women especially try to breast feed and take care of everyone...everyone except themselves. It doesn't matter in the least what the addict wants, how generous they want to be or how much they wish to change the world. All that matters is what the successful recovery program will comfortably allow in their life - if they truly want to get better and have a new life. If volunteerism or any person, place or thing for that matter, won't comfortably fit then you must acquit. What about the commonly thrown around misconception that tithing 10% of ones income is the way to find recovery and peace? I can assure you that if recovery could be bought by throwing money at the basket when it is being passed many sick addicts would have bought their way out of their mess of a life they have created for themselves by now.

**Sorry - I had to cut the end of this post off as it was too long to be accepted here.**



V (Male)

A Christian-Buddhist practitioner living a life of Voluntary Simplicity and grateful recovering Debtor, Drug and Substance Abuser, Compulsive Overeater, Clutterer, Rageaholic, Speculative Gambler, Compulsive Spender, Sex and Sensation Addict.

 

[VVV]

Voluntary Simplicity



We seldom question if more of a "good thing" is desirable for our supposed happiness in life. The question, that Voluntary Simplicity helps answer, is the question of what IS enough so we may be happy right now in the present. A life of Voluntary Simplicity focuses our attention on the fact that "everything we own take a little piece ~ peace of us." And in doing so, we can let go of peace and life destroying rituals and possessions and replace them with a contented, satisfied and complete life in the present moment instead of a life that revolves around the next thing to be acquired in hopes of satisfying our insatiable appetites. Greed is never satisfied by attainment - it is only satisfied by contentment. This orientation of conscious thought to simplify ones life in whatever activity the individual is engaged in is the foundation of success when it comes to simple living...mindfulness of our direction in life. Voluntary Simplicity is the tool I use to counter this desire to constantly expand my life with more complexities, stress and problems and to live within my comfortable boundaries for a serene life.

Although I started with 12 step programs in 1974 I was not able to enjoy balanced recovery efforts until I joined the Voluntary Simplicity or Simple Living movement in 1996. 12 step programs make up about 60% of my recovery work and 40% of my recovery comes from VS, so personally, I need that mix for successful recovery. The 12 Step programs do actually touch on the VS topic, but I could never see it, I guess it didn't go into enough detail for me. I've read quotes about VS in the 12 and 12 decades ago, although it is not specifically promoted or called VS by the program. I just glossed over the quotes until coming to VS. Once I became super sensitized to VS, these quotes shot out at me and the recovery picture all came together. Here is a quote that can be taken as the 12 Step programs efforts at VS.

........From page 76 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous........

"The chief activator of our defects has been a self-centered fear-primarily that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustrations. Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of reducing these demands."

I cannot tell you that I have no unsatisfied demands in my life; but, I will say that since joining the simple living movent my unsatisfied demands can now be counted on one hand, whereas in my prior life, I needed a notebook to record them all. I find VS to be a very important state of mind to be in. It shows which direction a person is pointed in with their life. The same way an addiction has 3 roads to go down, so it goes with VS. An addict can be expanding their addiction, freezing their addiction or reducing their addiction. A person suffering from an overly stressed or complicated life can be expanding the complications, freezing the complications or reducing the complications. Thoreau says that we need food, shelter, fuel and clothes as necessities. In modern times, I will add transportation to the list depending on your local. Everything else is pretty much optional. If we have these needs met and are not happy, then their is no end to our supposed needs for that elusive state of happiness that we seek. We all seem to have no shortage of supposed needs or wants as addicts.

VS is not about living low, it is about choices and balance. You get out what you put in with VS. If you do not cut back enough on the complexities that rob you of living life, then all you have is your same complex life back that you started with. If you cut out too many complexities and are unhappy or bored, don't worry, you can always add them back. We suffer from no shortage of stress and complexities of living, especially if you have a family. Life gives us plenty of problems for free. You can even trade the complexities that offer no reward other than more problems for new complexities that offer rich rewards or good feelings. There are no rules other than if you do not do enough you do not get any results. There are no VS police to boss you around and tell you what is right or wrong. We have to decide this for ourselves as individuals. As I have said before, the program is the final judge of your success, not you, not me, not anyone else, whether it be 12 step or VS.


**Sorry - I had to cut a section out of this post off as it was too long to be accepted here.**


An in-depth discussion and clarification of the term "Voluntary Simplicity" by Philip Slater

All personal solutions to wealth addiction involve one form or another of what has come to be called Voluntary Simplicity. This doesn't not necessarily mean going "back to nature" and does not mean living in poverty and discomfort, although some people may elect forms of simplicity that would be highly uncomfortable for the rest of us. Above all, it does not mean forcing yourself to give up something you really enjoy, out of some pious conviction that it's the "right thing to do." Voluntary Simplicity merely means trying to rid one's life as much as possible of material clutter so as to concentrate on more important things: creativity, human survival and development, community well-being, play.

The key word in Voluntary Simplicity is "voluntary," which means that the giving up of the material clutter is not coerced either from the outside or from the inside. As Andre Vanden Broeck observers, only those who have experienced affluence are in a position to have a "choice divorced from need." The poor aren't in a position to make such a choice-they are stuck with a scarcity that is neither simple nor voluntary.

Nor is Voluntary Simplicity coerced from within, for to deprive yourself out of some ideological conviction is merely to feed the Ego Mafia. The word "simplicity" may have overtones that arouse our suspicions: a vaguely puritan ring, conjuring up images of drab smocks, self-righteousness and flagellation. But if this is in the spirit in which Voluntary Simplicity is embraced the result will most certainly be noxious.

There is an old Zen story about two monks traveling together who encounter a nude woman trying to cross a stream. One of them carries her across, much to the consternation of the other. They continue in silence for a couple of hours until the second monk can stand it no longer. "How," he asks "could you expose yourself to such temptation?" The first monk replies, "I put her down two hours ago. You're still carrying her."

Addiction is internal; if you experiment sincerely with Voluntary Simplicity and find yourself still thinking of money and possessions, your simplicity is a fraud and you might just as well go back to pursuing wealth until you've had your fill of it. To achieve its goal, Voluntary simplicity must be undertaken in the spirit, not of Puritanism or self-flagellation, but out of adventure. All adventurers throughout history have, after all, been people who abandoned comforts, possessions, love and security to seek new experiences in faraway places.

Richard Gregg, who coined the term in 1936, once complained to Gandhi that while he had no trouble giving up most things, he could not let go of his books. Gandhi told he shouldn't try: "As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it." He pointed out that if you give things up out of a sense of duty or self-sacrifice they continue to preoccupy you and clutter your mind. To talk of "denying oneself" is to use the language of despotism. Simplicity is an affirmation, not a denial of oneself.

End of quote

It is always nice to have our own work confirmed by others that have gone before us as well as those that follow us. Many years ago I coined the phrase "Everything you own takes a little piece ~ peace of you." A couple years ago I came across Richard Gregg's original work on Voluntary Simplicity penned in 1936 and this is what he said on the subject of peace disturbance or as he termed it "SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE".

Taken from the original work:

Pendle Hill Essays Number Three
THE VALUE OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
RICHARD B. GREGG
Acting Director of Pendle Hill 1935-36


Chapter X. SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE
There is one further value to simplicity. It may be regarded as a mode of psychological hygiene. Just as eating too much is harmful to the body, even though the quality of all the food eaten is excellent, so it seems that there may be a limit to the number of things or the amount of property which a person may own and yet keep himself psychologically healthy. The possession of many things and of great wealth creates so many possible choices and decisions to be made every day that it becomes a nervous strain.

I'll leave you with a snip of wisdom from Thoreau from his book Walden.

"The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They had no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up."



V (Male)

A Christian-Buddhist practitioner living a life of Voluntary Simplicity and grateful recovering Debtor, Drug and Substance Abuser, Compulsive Overeater, Clutterer, Rageaholic, Speculative Gambler, Compulsive Spender, Sex and Sensation Addict.

 

[gingerurp]

My advice is to find a gym that offers boxing. Take out your frustrations on the heavy bag. It's great exercise as well as a terrific stress reliever.

 

[UnitynLove]

Always remeber that God is on your side. Just cry out to him that you need his help in solving these situations and stop trying to do it yourself. I think that is where mostof your stress comes from. Relax and let the lord handle it, he cares for you.

 

[The-Doctor]

Stress management: do you manage the stress you have or try to reduce the stress?

I say you need to look at reducing the stress. Exercise is a good way running swiming etc will help. Also look at your diet and caffeine intake. Caffeine can make stress seem worse so try to cut down. if you are feeling down eat a banana the potassium will help and you will feel better mood wise.

You might want to think about finding ways to reduce your work if you are overworked. Taking walks and time for you can help.

 

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Oh, stress is such a killer! I don't really have any advice other than to find some sort of hobby that requires complete, 100% concentration. Whether it be computer games, going to a firing range and shooting, or sports... anything.

Although flying can cause stress at times for me (mostly the studying before and after the flight after I'm on the ground), the actual act of flying completely aleviates stress because it doesn't allow me to think of anything BUT FLYING. I can't think of that test I just failed, how I ticked off my friend (or vise verse).

Eveven playing a computer game does that for me. No matter how incredibly busy you are, you have to have something fun to do and get your mind off stuff. Otherwise we'll ALL go CRAZY! lol


Also, I've found writing down everything I'm stressed about helps. If it's about homework piling up, simply prioritizing it all and giving it a specific timeline helps A LOT. I tend to look at EVERYTHING I have to do as though I have 1 hour to do it, when in reality it may be 2 weeks. By writing it down you can step back. Afterall, mountains look really small when you're 400 miles away, but when you're right at the base, they are larger than life!