Stress does
funny things. The mental/emotional pressure from stress should qualify as a
force like electromagnetic or gravitational, but physicists are hung up on
things that affect the physical world. Still, stress is something that we can’t
measure, can only gauge by feel, and it affects everyone differently. There
have been times in my life where I’ve succumbed to illness because of stress.
When I was younger I found myself regularly ill whenever the stress was too
high.
As I’ve
gotten older, that’s happened less and less. Either I’ve gotten better at
coping with the stress, or I’ve built up a tolerance to it. Probably a little
bit of both. I do know that I’m consciously trying to reduce stress in my life,
and a big part of that is simply releasing it.
I’m not
talking about letting go, though that can be part of it. I’m talking about not
keeping it bottled in. It’s amazing what talking about stress can do, but that’s
not the only avenue. Hobbies and other activities take stress away from us, and
I find myself using a variety of means to make sure I keep my stress under
control.
And as odd
as it sounds, learning and research relieves some of my stress—if the subjects
are ones I choose. So in that regard my writing ends up doing double duty so I
can research climate patterns, bizarre weather phenomenon (like volcanic smoke
rings), dark matter nebulae, sailing vessels, Central Asian mythology, and more
to get rid of stress. I get to indulge my curiosity and wonder at how awesome
the world, the universe, is.
And it’s a
heck of a lot cheaper than doctors.