Stress busting

The pressures of working at the Fish Factory have been high, but as though in some kind of anti-hero to the notion of stress I've decided to be even calmer and more relaxed. To accept them and just do what I can. It's like everybody must have a piece of the action and they all think I am the action thing to have a piece off. Little fishes pester me with questions and throw their own stresses at my direction. They pass on problems, called passing the monkey to those in the know. The monkey then clings to my own back rather than their own. When seeing other people react to pressures they are under a different part of personality comes out. How they act, or rather react as the situation takes them over and their nerves go a jingle-jangle like. One Fish came up to me, sat down and was on the edge of a precipice. I kept it calm sat and listened to what they had to say, even though they had interrupted my own flow of work. Something I've learnt is another person's problem is always the most important thing in the world. Much more important than your own. To the extent they are wrapped up in it, just like the outer layer of a deep fried pancake roll. As another monkey was passed to me, I sat an did a Buddha like contemplation.  The more I relaxed the easier it was to find a solution to the problem.  This attitude in turn had an effect on the Little Fish, they gradually got de-stressed and it was easier to deal with them.  Stress is a contagious feeling but equally calmness can be a contagious thing.  Besides being calm there is another walnut cracker which works well. One even Witchdoctors keep under their hat, it's powerful magic, very powerful. It is, humour. Whether being droll, sarcastically funny or just plain funny, it will do the trick.  Well in most cases it can, it may be difficult with those who have little in the way of a sense of humour. The ones who you speak to and instantly wish today it would of began better had you just stayed in bed.

It is all a matter of personality, some people are able to cope with the pressures of life, others have learnt how to deal with it. Dealing with stress is 99 percent dealing with your own attitude to stress. Learn from others I'd say, but ensure those you learn from are good examples. In my family I have a lot of bad examples of personalities, rather than learn from them I find they can then sap energy from my own reserves. To the point it is worth not even speaking to them or avoiding them. They will get a little of my time and then it is over. In some cases it is not possible to undo what has been a life time of depression, anxiety and emotional vampirism. Not even hard core therapy could dent. Ultimately we are all responsible for our own mental health, learning to relax in even the most confrontive of situations is probably the ultimate in black belt stress busting.

There is a new abbreviation out. It is YOLO (you only live once). If we were to take this to heart in every interaction a lot would change in your own personality. I heard it said Samuri would think about dying everyday. They would consider being killed in a variety of situations, it was  a matter of getting used to the thought and confrontation of an inevitability, certainly present in the line of work they had.  This was one of the exercises which would make them more able to cope with life, and personally I think they were probably quite light hearted people.

Every evening when I head home after work, I look forward to an important part of the night. It is picking up Bertha (Ukulele) and giving her a strum. OK she can give my finger tips pain, she occasionally goes out of tune when her strings have been changed, but she gives me a weird pleasure. Playing Bertha is like having a hit of some kind of happiness drug.  The next step in my progression is learning to sing along with her. Now, my timing is pretty crap, and my singing is pretty crap, and my memory of learning words to songs is also pretty crap.  when I put all of these things together and try a verse or two of a song the result is hilarious, well, it's hilarious to me. I sit there and just laugh. The other night I was laughing so much there was tears in my eyes. I rang up Rock Chick and played a verse to her, she thought I was drunk at first, I wasn't, I was plain happy.  Rock laughed as well. I said little Baby Fro would love this music, and indeed she will once she hears it. Rock will know Baby Fro has been suitably minded when she's been left to sleep in company of Bertha and myself.

Oh what a wonderful world this can be.