I love simple and practical solutions. In the health arena, there is a great and deliberate tendency by many to over complicate health issues. Yes it confuses the consumers encouraging them to accept the marketing hype as gospel. At the same time it gives many snake oil remedies an aura of being scientific.
When it comes to resolving stress, the solutions never seem simple. Most therapists suggest that you have to go back in detail and resolve all the issues from your childhood that are giving you stress now. Since my own near nervous breakdown 12 years ago I have researched all sorts of methods to reduce your stress levels.
I have walked barefoot over burning coals and broken glass. I have struggled to keep myself awake through many a boring lecture. I have devoured countless CDs, books and web pages in my pursuit of simple effective tools for reducing stress. But I have to admit, it is a bit like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of dirt to find a gem. And also you can strike it lucky at times when you least expect it. And I just did find a stress- reducing gem when I least expected it…
It was while I was reading a story to my son before he went to bed.
It was from a children’s book called The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside. The story is about a young girl who begins worrying about things and eventually carried them around with her wherever she went.
The girl meets an old lady who wanted to help her. She encouraged the young girl to open her bag of worries but young girl was terribly frightened to because she was afraid of what might happen.
Here comes the great advice…
The old lady’s profound advice was … “There’s nothing a worry hates more than being seen. If you have any worries, however small, the secret is to let them out slowly, one by one, and show them to someone else. They’ll soon go away.”
And that was in a children’s book!
With stories like that it is no wonder that young children have fewer worries. I know that many of you stressed out and burnt out workaholics will say “But kids don’t have anything to worry about.” Perhaps kids do have things to worry and stress about but they may see it as a pointless exercise.
If you are stressed, try acting more like a child. Getting rid of stress could be child’s play. Let the stress out slowly and show it to someone else and watch a lot of your stresses disappear…
