Tag Archives: stress

I can’t be serious…

Posted on by
10

15 minutes.

That’s how much time I’ll get at the coffee house tonight. 4 songs. 15 minutes.

  • The Perfect Me
  • Hector Hector
  • Do What we Can
  • Day is Done

And then I’m done.

I don’t perform live very often. I’m not a big fan of it. In fact, I’m just a big nervous chicken when it comes to singing in front of people. Luckily, on Sunday mornings, everyone is singing along, which takes the edge off.

But not tonight.

I asked a friend for advice. He said that I shouldn’t take myself too seriously.

Brilliant.

This perfectionist, overachiever, chicken is singing fun lighthearted songs tonight.

It’s the only way I can’t be serious.

The Happy Dance

Posted on by
21

I’m currently doing a happy-dance because of google calendar’s ability to send me text messages. Yes. We won’t get into specifics, but I’m a bit forgetful lately and this little doo-hicky will hopefully help.

Now… remembering to actually PUT stuff on my calendar? Well, that’s a whole ‘nuther issue.

For now, let’s do a happy-dance together, shall we? Focusing on the happy points makes life so much more… happy! See how that works?

Ok.

I’m happy about nagging text messages… What little gadget would you like to add to the happy-dance list?

Begin happy dance now.

de-stress

Posted on by
20

Life is crazy right now. Drew and I have a bit of stress weighing on us. Here’s how I cope:

  • exercise
  • sleep – lots of it
  • no caffeine – makes me jittery
  • quality time with good friends

This last one is important because I lean towards isolation whenever things get tough. I tend to pull back – pull away – when life starts to press in on me. My friends call it “caving” and, yes, I have an unfortunate tendency to cave. But I’m learning that I cope better when I’m talking through issues. When I verbalize my frustrations, emotions, worries… I find that the mountain shrinks when I talk about it.

What do you do to de-stress?

how do you do your to-do lists?

Posted on by
18

i have a friend who writes her to-do list in the middle of the day, after she’s already completed some things that she can immediately mark OFF the list as she writes it.

yes, you read that correctly. she makes a to-do list that includes things she’s ALREADY done just to have the satisfaction of marking ‘em off.

i, personally, don’t even LIKE to-do lists bc the pressure just gets to me – makes me so stressed out.

but, there are times in my life when to-do lists are absolutely necessary. like, say, this week. i can’t figure out why i have 30 items on my to-do list… i feel like i’m staring at a wall that cannot be scaled – like a mountain that simply cannot be climbed – like an ocean that cannot be crossed – like a … anyway, you get the picture.

what about you? do you have a love/hate relationship with your to-do list?

the official scientific study on women’s friendships

Posted on by
8

its official:

  • girlfriends are good for our mental stability
  • girlfriends help us live longer
  • the lack of girlfriends has the same physical effect as smoking or obesity on a woman’s health.
  • girlfriends make us happier. seriously.

its true! its true! just ask the two female researchers from UCLA who conducted this study a few years ago. their conclusions led them to propose a female counterpart (“tend and befriend”) to the well-known “fight or flight” theory that has been around for decades.
inspiration for the “tend and befriend” research started when these two female researchers began to notice that, when they were stressed, they didn’t exhibit “fight or flight” behaviors that everyone has heard of. instead, they gathered together and talked and cleaned and talked and cleaned and cleaned and talked.

sound familiar, anyone?

they did some digging and discovered that 90% of the subjects that participated in the famous “fight or flight” studies were actually men. which meant that this long-established stress response theory was based on male-generated findings.

which meant the exhibited “fight or flight” response may not be characteristic of women.  hhhmmmmm….

so, they conducted their own study and discovered that, under stress, women seem to gather to talk through worries.  along with finding friendships as a means of coping with stress, we also have a pattern of cleaning things and caring for others when stress hits us. [duh!]

why is this official scientific study important? well, because there are actually physical/chemical/hormonal activities underneath this “tend and befriend” pattern.  these behaviors release significant amounts of “oxytocin” in our brains, lowering our level of stress and producing a sense of calm and contentment. [ahhhh........]

thus, the “tend and befriend” theory emerged!

the full big worded, scientific report is here

a more “reader friendly” article reviewing the report is here

so…. next time you get stressed out, find a girlfriend and talk through things (which we always do), then go clean the house (which we always do)… if neither of these things work, then grab the nearest chunk of chocolate you can find, because there’s also research to suggest that chocolate is like a happy drug for the female brain.