Today is the first of the new series I mentioned in my last post and the topic is stress. This is a huge problem for lawyers and creatives. These days, pretty much everyone I know has some issues with it, thanks especially to the pandemic and Trump years.
Stress can be a good thing–it helps us do well in athletics, for example, but even there only if it isn’t too great. Chronic stress can be a big negative to our health, both mental and physical.
The folks over at the Greater Good Center have published a quiz to help us evaluate our stress–that quiz is embedded below. After you finish, they offer suggestions for coping.
The really great thing about the Greater Good folks is that they do science-based work. While there are lots of references to things like mindfulness (a very Buddhist-y thing), they don’t offer woo-woo but rather evidence-based ideas. There are concrete things to do which, if you’re anything like me, makes all the difference in the world. I mean, it’s one thing to say “lighten up” but it’s much more effective for me if someone suggests something active like “write in your journal at least 3 good things that happened to you today.”
So, if you’re feeling stressed, I’d like to suggest you take the quiz and try some of the options suggested. Tailor them to your own life and try some things just to see if they help. I know, for me, meditating every morning as well as taking the time to do about 10 minutes of breathing exercises (I do it with deep stretches) make all the difference in my day. I can go back to these tools every time I feel the stress crank up, too.
As always, I hope this helps.