Story about stress: How long can you hold a glass of water
A speaker was once explaining stress to an audience of around 300 people. He raised a big glass of water and asked the listening audience, “Does anyone know how heavy this glass is?” Answers varied from 100 to 500 grams.
The speaker replied, “The absolute weight of this water really doesn’t matter all that much. What really matters is how long you try to hold it!”
He continued, “If I am only holding it for a few minutes, the weight won’t be a problem. If I have to hold it for an hour I might begin to feel an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm is going begin to feel numb and even paralyzed.”
After a couple of moments of silence, he continued…
“This is like stress and worries in our lives. If you think about your stress and the things you are worried about for a short time, there is little impact. If you think about them longer they can begin to hurt. And if you think about them all the time they can eventually become so heavy you can’t carry on. Like you do with the glass of water, you should also put the stress you feel down and rest from time to time before picking it back up. When we feel refreshed, then pick it back up and carry on with a rested and possibly different perspective.”
Moral of the story:
- Sometimes you have to take a break and look at the situation you are facing with a "fresh pair of eyes". Go read a book, or a blog, watch a documentary, take a nap, go for a walk... If you can not find a solution "break the train of thought" and come back to the issue later from a different point of view. The thing that is causing you stress will wait for you to pick it up again. You don't have to "carry it" with you all the time.
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