Today, according to the USA National Days Calendar, is National Stress Awareness Day!
I wonder if it’s a coincidence that National Stress Awareness Day usually follows Election Day in the USA. Personally, I am very aware of national stress today.
Here are some images for National Stress Awareness Day:
Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “National Stress Awareness Day”:
“Of my four children — well I guess now I’ve only got three — no one would’ve predicted that Lorna was having a hard time,” Dr. Philip C. Breen, her father, told Business Insider. “She would not even be on that list.”
As the pandemic has left millions under lockdown and triggered deep loss and widespread grief, medical workers and emergency responders like Mondello and Lorna Breen have faced the brunt of the crisis with grueling workloads, unprecedented stress, deep uncertainty, and a steep death count.
Medical workers are drawn to the profession to alleviate suffering and protect their patients. During the pandemic, however, the virus has in many cases robbed them of the ability to achieve either goal.
Laurie Nadel, a psychotherapist and author, characterized the coronavirus as an “equal-opportunity destroyer” that’s forcing frontline medical workers to go “mano-a-mano with mortality on a larger scale” than ever before.
There are ways to support workers in such high-pressure roles, but Dr. Shauna Springer advocates not calling them heroes. “There’s an invisible pressure that comes with that.”
“People are resilient until they’re not. And so people who are called out as resilient are often more reluctant to acknowledge human struggles and to reach out when they need help.”
For people who are resilient until they’re not (which can include all of us), that article advocates the healing powers of listening without offering advice and also doing things to lighten each other’s loads.
Do you see evidence of people who are resilient until they’re not in the images I captured yesterday?
I posted that last picture of that resilient tiger on my Facebook page last night with this caption: “She’s taking crisis calls.” I’m noticing, here and now, that it’s easier to be resilient when somebody has your back.
Yesterday morning, I asked my readers “What are you feeling?” Later in the day, I learned that everybody in my Coping and Healing group was feeling anxious.
Just in case you’re feeling anxious, here’s the list the group created together about how to feel less anxious.
I got a little anxious, just now, when I momentarily couldn’t read the last entry in the middle column, above. I feel less anxious remembering that it says “balloons” — somebody in the group shared their anxiety-reducing technique of imagining fears attached to balloons that float away.
What would you add to that brainstormed list of “How to Feel Less Anxious”?
Might any of my other photos from yesterday help you feel less anxious?
As I mentioned in group yesterday, one person’s anxiety reducer might be another person’s anxiety increaser, as you can see in these comments about that video:
Maria ER
3 years ago
This video stressed me out
Ian P
3 years ago
I’m not sure ‘the indifference of nature’ is making me feel less anxious, lol.
Laura Thomas
4 years ago
I feel like this isn’t so much about being less anxious as it is about being more mindful. Still good, though.
Survive the Jive
5 years ago
The sea is so primal, even the mountains are younger. It evokes visceral feelings of man in context to the earth. Strange that meditating on the comparative insignificance of our lives to the span of nature should actually be so life affirming.
Ashley Valentin
2 years ago
Reading the comments made me more anxious than the video…
Experiencing and expressing gratitude make me feel less anxious, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.
Yesterday, when I was walking outside and being foolishly apprehensive about writing and delivering a “Report from the President” at a group therapy conference this weekend, I saw an invitation to come inside and be foolish.
Personally, I appreciate any invitation to come inside and accept all my different parts (from foolish to wise). How about you?
Here’s my next foolish thought: “The Fool” is the most evolved of all the Jungian archetypes.
The Fool/Jester archetype urges us to enjoy the process of our lives. Although the Fool/Jester can be prone to laziness and dissipation, the positive Fool/Jester invites us all out to play — showing us how to turn our work, our interactions with others, and even the most mundane tasks into FUN. The goal of the Fool/Jester is perhaps the wisest goal of all, which is just to enjoy life as it is, with all its paradoxes and dilemmas.
This fool now wants to look at a definition of “foolish.”
fool·ish
/ˈfo͞oliSH/
adjective
(of a person or action) lacking good sense or judgment; unwise.
“it was foolish of you to enter into correspondence.”
Her desperation led her to do something foolish; my desperation leads me to blogging. (Of course, everything leads me to blogging; I’ve been writing a daily blog in the morning for almost seven years.) (But what fool is counting?)
And if it’s foolish for me to write this blog before writing my report from the President, so be it.
Speaking of foolish, is it foolish for me to be worried about the stupid, silly, idiotic, halfwitted, witless, brainless, mindless, thoughtless, imprudent, incautious, irresponsible, injudicious, indiscreet, unwise, unintelligent, unreasonable, ill-advised, ill-considered, impolitic, rash, reckless, foolhardy, lunatic, absurd, senseless, pointless, nonsensical, inane, fatuous, ridiculous, laughable, risible, derisible, dumb, dim, dimwitted, dopey, gormless, damfool, half-baked, harebrained, crackbrained, peabrained, wooden-headed, thickheaded, nutty, mad, crazy, dotty, batty, dippy, cuckoo, screwy, wacky, barmy, daft, glaikit, dumb-ass, chowderheaded, and dotish reports from and about another President?
Worry is always foolish, because it doesn’t help anything.
Let’s be glaikit (Scottish word meaning foolish, giddy) together and look at my other foolish fotos from yesterday!
Michael was foolish enough to make LOTS of those delicious cod cakes last night. And I was foolish enough to clean my plate.
My first week of blogging, I was foolish enough to write a post about procrastination. After going inside that old post, I’m foolishly quoting it here:
if I AM going to wait until the last minute to do something, I wish to heaven I could block that procrastinated task totally out of my mind. But that’s not how it works for me. Usually, I’m exquisitely and uncomfortably aware of what I’m avoiding. Geesh. There’s got to be a way for procrastination to be more fun.
As I’ve gotten older, I have become more forgiving about my procrastinating tendencies. I’ve also realized that procrastination for me often has to do with insecurity. For example, I almost always wait until the last minute to do something that I think I might conceivably suck at doing — or, at least, where I might fall short of my own expectations and wishes.
One thing I’ve historically procrastinated about is …….. writing.
Maybe I procrastinate because I’m foolishly afraid of appearing foolish.
Here‘s the foolish song going through my foolish head, here and now:
Come inside and be foolish with a comment, below!
Finally, I shall finish this foolish post with a foolish foto to express my thanks to all those who helped me write today’s post and — of course! — to YOU. No fooling!
If my post title today irritates you or leads you to an understanding of yourself or others, let’s give the credit to Carl Jung.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
… is displayed on the front of the packaging for the Carl Jung action figure in my office.
Whenever I share that quote with others, they seem to understand.
How do you understand that quote from Carl Jung, my understanding readers?
These days, several things are irritating me about others, which means I have an unprecedented opportunity to understand myself! I’m going to celebrate that by sharing some other recent photos (which may be an irritating habit of mine, which I hope you understand).
It’s not how old you are, it’s how you keep learning to understand yourself and others.
Here are 10 additional quotes from Carl Jung, which can lead to more understanding.
I hope you understand my gratitude for all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — for YOU.
P.S. After I published this post, I realized it was irritatingly similar to this one, from August 2017. I hope you understand!
Yesterday, in a therapy group, people talked about uncomfortable feelings, including anger, fear, and sadness. Some had “secondary” feelings about their feelings, including guilt and shame.
Because negative thoughts and feelings can stick, I felt it was okay to ask people to write helpful phrases on yellow stickies. I feel that it’s okay to share some of those yellow stickies here:
It’s okay that I was feeling rushed when I took that photo of “This too shall pass.”
All your feelings are okay about my photos in this post.
All my feelings are okay, including anger — which I’m expressing in my new song, “I’m Mad About You” — and confidence about performing that song a week from Friday.
All your feelings are okay, and I hope you express them in a comment, below.
All my okay feelings, here and now, include gratitude towards all those who helped me create today’s all-your-feelings-are-okay post and — of course! — YOU.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 