Monday, September 29, 2008

STRESS!

We all have experienced different levels of stress and some deal with it better than others. This newsletter is not going to be all about the studies and research on stress. We all know that we need to manage and limit our stress. Professionals tell us to remove stressful people and situations out of our lives if possible. I do not claim to be a professional but I have had to deal with stress.

Three times in my life, I feel I have had more stress than most people. The first and most traumatic time was when I was told I had cancer and I was staring death in the face. The second time was when I was told my cancer relapsed. That led to the third time when I was told I would need a stem cell transplant to save me life and that the treatment could kill me. September 16th was 6 years since my transplant, which brings me to my personal view on stress.As the Oncologist explained to me, with the deepest compassion and the highest level of medical professionalism, what I should expect. I could not hear his words or explanation. Thinking back all I could hear was that voice (slow, low, base, trumpet sound) of the school teacher for the cartoon Charlie Brown. My stress level was so high I could not even think straight.

After 11 years of dealing and handling stress, I recently found myself totally stressed out almost to the levels as when I was fighting my cancer. I found myself in what I call false stress. I describe it as, the smaller your problems are in life the bigger the little issues become. So if you are told you may die tomorrow, other big issues may not matter as much. But if life is great and everything is perfect and you get upset over spilt milk you are living under false stress. Realizing where your levels of issues are compared to other might help you out of false stress.It is easy to recognize when others put stress on us, but are you stressing other people out. Ask yourself this hard question. Do you do what you say you’re going to do and by the time you said it would be done? If you can answer yes to this question then you are doing your part to reduce stress, if not, you could be fueling other peoples stress. If everyone could move in the direction of answering yes life, would be a lot less stressful.

I will never judge anyone for what may cause their level of stress or how it manifests itself. I developed Med File Now® so if anyone is ever in the need to recall their medical information when under stress it will all be there quickly and accurately. If you have a loved one you want to protect tell them to set up a Med File Now® (MedFN®) account. Just go to www.medfn.com to get started. You don’t need a health condition to use MedFN.com just a desire to be safe.

No comments: