Stress

For years I have wondered why I started going gray in the sixth grade. How is it we allow ourselves to live with so much on our shoulders? My whole life I have been a high stress person. I mull over things, eat away at them and chew until my jaw is sore! Apparently stress will make you age at six times the normal rate. Heart disease risk, illness- all increase the more your stress levels increase. All reasons to decompress. In Europe people have less, but they don't over work themselves. In the US a 40 hour work week is practically unheard of. It is time for change. More meditation, and less caring about the detail things that don't matter in the long run.

Had a slight difficulty yesterday with a co-worker who thought I had made a poor decision. My patient during a test I was performing showed a slight disrhythmia. I could feel it manually and I could see it on EKG. Before proceeding with the test I called the Dr's office to inform them of this and see if they wanted to proceed with Isuprel (A cardiac drug that increases the automaticity of the heart muscle) because I had some concerns. This co-worker told me that I was going to get my ass chewed up one side and down the other because she did not see what I claimed to see. My usual response to this would be to mull over it to ensure I had made a good decision. I would have been worried and possibly unable to function as highly as usual. Instead my response was to say "If the doctor chews my ass for having my patient's best interest in mind, then let him." And that was that. I acknowledged that I felt stressed and it entirely changed my response! It was empowering to know that I could purposefully change my behavior to the better. Not only was my response clear cut, but I experienced much less stress. I am changing slowly, one baby step at a time. I will not bear the weight of the world any more. And by the way, I did not get my ass chewed one bit. : )