Article January 12, 1998 Issue

Stressless living

Here's a cure for the push and pull of life.

By David C. Driver

Your day at the office has been full of demands: letters to sign, a meeting to chair, documents to approve to get an important project underway. Your e-mail and in-box are getting ahead of you. Your calendar for the rest of the week is full. Then your boss comes in. He cannot make it to an important meeting in Phoenix tomorrow (you live in Denver). You need to represent the company in his stead. Pressure. So many things crowding in.

Or another scenario: You've come home from your part-time job in time to greet the children as they return from school. Then you turn chauffeur—Robert to Little League practice, Sarah to dance class, Tim to his piano lesson. You get home in time to prepare a simple family dinner when your spouse calls. What about having an important client home for dinner? As you start planning a more elaborate menu, your neighbor calls. She has an emergency with her toddler. Could you come to the rescue? Tension. So many demands pulling you in all directions.

In these illustrations, the pressured business person and the tensioned parent both feel the influence of many forces, or the demands of many minds—pushing or pulling in different directions. Both physical and mental stress, either pressure or tension, involve opposing forces. Rest an empty milk carton on your hand and it's not under pressure. But squeeze it between your two hands, pushing the sides together, and it will collapse under the pressure. Or hold a rubber band in one hand, and it will hang loosely under no tension. But hold it with both hands and pull them apart, and you'll stretch it tight with tension. Stress always involves opposing forces, either pushing together or pulling apart. But without opposing forces there's neither tension nor pressure—no stress. So how do we eliminate the opposing forces?

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Stressless living

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access