Laughing at Stress

I'm back and blissfully happy in love with my new husband. I'm also perfectly de-stressed. What a great time for me, now to reflect on the nature of stress on our lives. Particularly since it's a very timely topic in my and my husband's life right now.

We have only been back to work for two days now. And yet my husband had a panic attack last night, induced by stress.

Us urbanites live with a spectacularly huge amount of daily stress. Commuting is stressful. Our jobs are stressful. Our high living costs are stressful. Stress stress everywhere. Sure a lot of us are totally health conscious. We don't smoke, we drink decaf, we cut carbs, we work out... but there is one thing we just won't give up. Stress. Why is that?

Stress gives us a sense of importance. It's like speed chess - and most of us just keep moving and punching the clock, hoping we'll come out on top. Especially us North Americans, we work longer hours and more days a year than any other part of the country. We live to work. It's eating us alive.


But then again, maybe it's all just more opportunities for us to test ourselves. How do we find peace in the moment. How do we center ourselves when deadlines approach, bosses start pressing us for results, emails start piling up. I wonder what Buddha would have done in an office environment. I imagine he would just look at the paperwork and laugh - and ironic kind of laugh, a laugh to reflect on just how meaningless it all is. We're all just typing monkeys passing the time, trying to keep ourselves busy, fill ourselves with purpose.

It's easy for me to say all of this now that I've been out of the grind. Because I've forgotten how pressing it all is. Come next week I'm sure I'll get sucked back into it. And when that happens I'll have to just remind myself to do what Buddha would do. And laugh. Because we're all wonderfully ridiculous, just trying to pass the time between important moments.

And before I sign out I'd like to thank Darcy for his very kind review at Spiritual Blog Reviews. It's nice to have a little validation from time to time, to at least know that I'm not just shouting into a void. Thanks again. It made my day.