"My nephew Izzy just keeled over. And he was a fruit bat. No meat. No blood, even."Stress comes on all the time, but something about the holidays almost mandates extra heaping portions of it. Don't get me wrong, the holidays are great. In fact, I've personally decided that the heathen gods who picked Christmas to fall in the middle of the dead winter did it to lift up our dreary spirits during this crappy weather time of year. At least, for us northern hemisphere dwellers anyway. It really is something to look forward to and is a happy time, hands down.
But nobody can deny that with jolly holidays comes the need to make the season jolly, the need to get thoughtful, appropriate, glee-inducing gifts for everyone on your list, and in my personal case, the annual "Jen-I-need-you-to-accompany-me-NOW" kerfuffle of Christmas music. But the music part is over now and all was well on that end.
I've decided that stress is like a game of Jenga. You've got your tower of things to do, and every additional item requires you to take a piece from your already existing mental and physical abilities and stack it on top. I had this revelation last night about my own stress-handling capabilities. Whenever I played Jenga, I was always cautious and took, for the most part, the middle pieces to keep it stable. If I *had* to take side pieces, I did it from the top and only after the base was stable. This was also usually because I, with my amazing coordination skills, tend to knock the tower over early. Other people (ahem ahem, my mom and sister) immediately went for the side pieces on the bottom and gleefully stacked and stacked away. They built their towers 36, 38 levels deep (from a base level of 16... yes, I'm that nerdy to give you stats on Jenga) and could balance an astonishing amount of precariously placed blocks without batting an eye.
Thus it is with your stress handling capabilities. Are you the type to be cautious because you know your "tipping point" is early? Or are you the type to stack and stack away because you have superior coordination skills and know your tower can climb to Everest-esque heights before it falls (read: you have a nervous breakdown?)
Until then, I'm going to straighten my tower and keep looking for blocks to take out...
3 comments:
Unfortunately I'm a stacker, and this month is no exception. It's hard work growing a baby, raising a baby, being on deadline for an article, and trying to handle everything associated with the Christmas season. Wo is me. :) Seriously, I appreciate your analogy. Apparently I need to chill out! ;)
Have a merry Christmas, Jen!! Love you!
As for me, I choose to disregard stress altogether. I just pretend like everything is okay, until that inevitable moment when you realize that there is way too much on your plate. This was the point during high school and college when I would go to my parents house, collapse on their bed and cry until my mom would pat my head (accessible to her only because I am lying down--otherwise, she wouldn't be able to reach my head) and tell me everything is going to be okay.
Now Justin is left with the sobbing mass on the bed, and he's beginning to realize that I don't need solutions to my problems, and it really only takes a few pats on the head and an "everything will be fine" and I go back to my stress-ignoring ways...
By the way, here are my hints to avoid holiday stress: 1. Never go to the mall in December. If you can't get it online, it's not worth getting. 2. Make mutual agreements with friends and family not to buy each other presents. 3. Don't travel--it makes everything easier.
JENGA!
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