Stress

"Stress is the fertilizer of creativity"
- Jon Vogt ("24")

With the global economy as it is, "stress" has become the staple of many minds. If you aren't feeling the pangs as a woman in labor, you are among the fortunate few. Over the weeks, I have been quietly researching and recording the vocal thoughts of both the well-to-do and the middle class. It is amazing how there is stress in each of these classes. The middle class hope to save their homes and vehicles primarily, while the well-to-do hope to stop the hemorraging in their investment accounts. With that precursor, it is quite clear that we are all feeling the stress that comes with an economic downturn...

Bear with me, then, as I play my psychoanalytical role for a few moments. Stress, as a matter of course, is not a bad thing. In fact, stress can be in two forms: eustress and distress. Eustress is the stress that is necessary for everyday functioning. For instance, it takes this kind of stress to keep your body and muscles in correct balance for you to stand, sit, drive, etc. Distress, on the other hand, is "negative" stress that overloads your mind, body, soul, and spirit. While eustress helps the body to function, distress overloads the body and stunts growth as well as causes damage that may be irreparable...

...the fortunate thing for you and I, then, is that we can make a choice about how we let the stresses of life affect and, in turn, move us. I am hardpressed to think of any organization today that is using the same strategy it used during the economic boom years. All of us, individuals and organizations alike, must now "improvise, overcome, and adapt" (Born Beating the Odds) within this immensely challenging environment. Failure to do so means only one thing: extinction. All of us are innundated with doom and gloom as it pertains to organizations (which, for all intents and purposes, are living, breathing and tax-paying "individuals") but there's another group we hear nothing about: us!

Many of us are going through emotional, psychological, spiritual, and, yes, physical extinction. We feel as though we have failed - terribly! Our homes are in jeopardy, our children's 529s are now 5.9s and let's not even talk about those 4.1Ks that were once 401Ks. We need to remember, however, that we are more than our homes and other assets. Yes, we have a physical self, a social self, and a spiritual self. We just need to be careful not to equate our loses in our physical self (the sum total of our assets and benefits) to the totality of WHO we are. We are human BEINGS - ever changing...and, hopefully, ever growing. The essence of change, my friends, is growth. We must grow from this stress - not become smaller or weaker.

When we work out in the gym, we are putting stress on our muscles - not for them to become weaker, but for them to become stronger. Muscles grow when they become longer. They become longer the more you stretch (I know...a true pun for "stress"). So, consider this season a time of stretching. For, it is the "warm up" that you need to ensure that your "muscles" grow and you become even more of the unique and special individual that you are!

Talk to me...

(c) 2009, Dr. Kozhi Sidney Makai. No part of this blog post may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system without the written consent of the copyright holder.