ARE YOU A STRESS HANDLER?
Are you a stress handler? Check off the items that apply to you. Do you . . .
( ) Give yourself extra time to get places, so you don’t have
to rush around? ( ) Go through the day at a comfortable pace, without feeling
like you’re always behind schedule? ( ) Sometimes enjoy a scenic detour from your usual route
to work, school or home, even if it takes a little longer? ( ) Often do things, like singing or skipping, just for the fun
of it?
( ) Take other’s errors and omissions in stride, correcting them when necessary, but not becoming unduly upset?
( ) Take time for traditions, fantasies and rituals, and celebrate birthdays and holidays?
( ) Enjoy relationships just for their own sake?
( ) Feel you can stand up for yourself if necessary? ( ) Firmly yet gently try to change things that you would like see changed?
( ) Find yourself accepting of those things you cannot change?
( ) Have you set reasonable goals for yourself?
( ) See yourself as a success or as someone who is working
toward success? ( ) Feel reasonably satisfied with yourself?
Checking almost all or all of the above items means you are probably a stress handler. That means you’re not jolting your “doctor within” with the high-voltage chemicals the stress seeker inflicts on himself. Neither are you suppressing your immune system by filling your mind with stress-phobic thoughts.
A Tip From Stress Handlers
We’re not all stress handlers, but we can borrow some of their techniques. The key is learning to moderate our thoughts. Stress seekers can learn to choose their battles carefully. Stress phobics, on the other hand, can become more assertive and learn to express their feelings. Moderation is the goal. Perhaps you can’t become a complete stress handler, but adapting even a few stress-handling techniques can boost your “doctor within.”
We’d all like to be stress handlers: relaxed, calm, able to rise to the occasion when necessary, learning to live with what we cannot change. Unfortunately, true stress handlers are a rare breed. So I propose an additional type of personality called the reformed stress seeker, a person who has learned to moderate his or her view of life.
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