Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Dealing With Stress

It seems to me , that dealing with stress starts with recognising things that give you stress and anticipating whether you're coping adequately on a daily basis. If you're just going on with your life, going from day to day without checking in with yourself, noticing behaviors or symptoms that usually indicate stress for you,you may wait until you are overstressed before you act. When you do that, it can take more actions to get you back on track and centered.

I can usually take changes fairly well unless they are really big changes, or thing that may really complicate my life. If it is a change that I have initiated or I'm enthusiatic about, then I usually will have "good" stress. Of course even good stress can get out of hand. Changes that are required of me, but without my choice, like new procedures at work can get stressful. Sometimes, these changes are easier than anticipated, so they go pretty well. We recently had to start using handheld scanning computers to record the products that we use in our demos. It turned out to be fairly easy and not all that stressful. The stressful part is the difference in our work orders, harder to understand and harder to figure out if you're making your sales goals or not. Since our pay raises are tied to preformance, this gets stressful. Still, you do your best and watch the stats and hope it all works out. Not the best way to manage stress.

A big stressor for me is worrying about disappointing a loved one, like maybe not being able to attend a function because of your work schedule. Hopefully,a supervisor will be accomodating, but the stress is there until the problem is resolved.

When you get several problems all giving you stress and the problems will not be solved very quickly, you may just have to have faith in yourself and the people that you deal with and in the power of Spirit. And whilr you're waiting for resolution, do something for yourself. Relax, meditate, listen to good music, plant some flowers, read a good book and be sure and laugh!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Just Musing

I had a nice birthday. My Aunts insisted in giving me more than I thought I needed, but still, it's nice adding to your wardrobe right? The weather has been as changable as is typical in Utah's springtime. We got some pretty good rain on Monday, but we're still heading for a draught this year. It seems like we only just got over one.

I just bought African Daisies and Zinnias to plant. It's nice to have a yard to grow stuff again.

I'm finally getting to the point where I have very little furniture left in my condo. I've sold or given away most of the larger stuff. There's still "stuff" there, but I'm making headway--good thing too, as my storage is pretty full.

We've got a large bush of old fashioned yellow roses in the backyard and even some Oriental Poppies coming over from the nieghbor's yard. The peonies are blooming and the roses are starting to bloom. We have Geraniums and Dianthus in pots on the steps.The tulips are finished and the Irises nearly done.Spring seems to go so fast, but I love it! Yesterday, I was coming home from Salt Lake and came over a hill and saw the Great Salt Lake. It was so blue! The air was clear and you could see many of the islands so sharply. I wish I'd had my camera, we don't always have such clear days anymore.

My oldest Grandson graduates high school this year. I have a picture of him in the living room and he's less than a year old and so cute. It seems like just a few years ago he was so small. Now he's over 6 feet tall and getting ready to venture out into the world. It really seems amazing.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Odd Musings

I thought I'd better write something, here it is mid May and I haven't posted yet. I've been working a little more, and I've been a bit lazy.

We've had only a few days of spring here, but more summer weather than spring. We've aldeady been into the ninety degree weather. The last 2 days have been in the seventies, more spring like. Tomorrow we'll be pushing back into the eighties.

My birthday is tomorrow and I'll be celebrating with a shopping trip and a lunch out. It will be nice I think. It's always good to have a little fun once in a while.

I've been thinking of planning a get-away this summer. It's been awhile since I've been anywhere. The gas prices may dictate how far I'll go, or maybe I won't be able to go at all if prices keep climbing. It's hard not to believe in some sort of conspiracy sometimes, especially with the prices going up almost daily. I mean really, the prices really are changing several times a week. What's up with that? One of these days, maybe this country will finally get it's act back on track. Well, that's my soapbox speech for today.