# 44 (2013) Stress Management - The Flip Side

I read a very interesting and totally unexpected blog the other day by a fellow Lincolnite who, if I am honest, I don't really know. I know her partner - he's a photographer I have worked with - but our paths have never crossed.

(source)

Her topic was stress and how much it engulfs her life and metamorphs into a series of health problems that she is trying to cope with on a daily basis. You wouldn't know any of this to look at her and I don't doubt it's probably only been priviledged information for those closest to her. So announcing it on a blog is a brave thing to do.

Kudos.

I run at the other end of the spectrum. My stress is very much internalised and it takes a lot of it to pull me down. In some ways this is worse because by the time stress starts to manifest outwardly in me, I am quite literally at breaking point. I take a lot of crap but it's as if I use it as a form of self flagellation, I never seem to give myself a break.

It means I will let people waste huge chunks of my life before I fight back. I'm just too nice. And I'm sorry to say I have wasted a lot of my life on people who just didn't matter in the long run.

I have a different attitude these days. Whilst there are some things that are continual nagging stress problems and never seem to be sufficiently resolved - financial, living environment, work concerns (most of society right?), there are many things I now deal with far more easily than I used to.

If people stress me out, I walk away. My ability to drop people who complicate my life may seem callous but believe me, it's a lifetime of experience that's got me to that point. What it means is that the people who are in my life are generally hassle free and the relationships are far more meaningful. I may have a small friend circle but it is refined and keeps the stress levels in check.