Welcome to my blog

Congratulations and welcome to friends, family and others who have found something of interest in my blog. The reason that I have created this blog is to share some of my experiences regarding my own journey of writing and publishing my autobiography. I am really excited and motivated about this whole process. I hope that what I write about is interesting to you and thank you for your encouragement and support.





Thursday, March 31, 2011

Stressed out!

How many of you have heard yourself saying “I’m so stressed out?”

Did you know that in most traditional Aboriginal societies, there isn’t even a word to describe stress?  I wonder why that is? 

To unpack this we need to work out what “stress” is before we can work out what it is not!

In the past, stress used to be defined as “the physical pressure, pull or other force exerted on one thing by another” 

In more recent times physical stress has taken on more of a psychological meaning and we have become the subject or thing of the strain and tension and it becomes our physical, mental or emotional well-being that is put under stress or pressure.  The question is are we really under all that stress, strain and pressure or do we just think we are?

Now some times pressure is good, but sometimes it feels like it becomes too much and we become stressed and de-pressed, hence the term “I feel flat”.  This is when everything in life just becomes too much of a challenge and feels like the world and all the responsibilities are on your shoulders.

When we feel stressed, instead of focusing on what we can do, we become wrapped up in thinking about all of the things that we can’t do.  We then focus on what everyone else thinks that we should be doing. 

Now in the past the main difference was everyone actually knew what they were supposed to be doing.  Everyone was given jobs, tasks and roles based on their gender and age.  There was a sharing of responsibility.  It didn’t all fall on one person’s shoulders.

In the past roles were very clear and who was doing a task was clear, what they were told to do was clear, how they had to do it was clear, when it had to be done was clear and why they had to do it was also clear. 

In more recent times, roles have become very BLURRED and much of the time we don’t know what we should be doing and who should be doing it.  Society no longer cares who does what; it just wants the job done.  What we find is that if you want a job done well you ask someone who’s busy, because you know that they are good at getting things done.  Hence the pressure, stress and strain all falls onto the shoulders of one individual.  Usually YOU!


So next time you feel like the world is on your shoulders, remember to get CLEAR on what is expected of you, but most of all, what you expect of yourself!

Until next time!  Enjoy!





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