Once upon a time I stressed over pretty much everything. When I was in college I worried about my classes, when I left class to go to one of the three jobs I held simultaneously I worried about work, I worried about my finances and relationships. I stayed tied up in knots day in and day out. I developed insomnia and would stay up studying until two in the morning only to get up to study more at five or six in the morning. I also developed what I now recognize as a pretty bad case of depression. I couldn’t enjoy anything. Time spent with dear friends was always overshadowed by my worries and fears.
A friend clued me in one day as I was sitting in her apartment crying over a failed relationship, my fears, life in general. She said, “Honey, you can’t change the past. Things could always be worse, you know. What you have to do is just let it go, trust God to do what’s best for you and find the good in everything. Always find something to be happy about.”
Pollyanna has long been a favorite book of mine, though I used to scoff at the feasibility of Pollyanna’s “Glad Game” while I was stressing myself to death over things I couldn’t control. I’ve found that it does work and it is a tremendous help for getting through stressful days without pulling your hair out or going on a crying jag.
I quit worrying about everything and resolved to always be as positive as possible. I know I drove my husband crazy sometimes with my cheerful attitude because he was a great one for letting things get to him. Driving behind a slow driver was enough to make him angry and ruin his day, conflict pushed him over the edge and problems at work hung over his head for ages. He’s gotten better. Maybe I’m a good influence.
So no matter what the situation I always look for something good. I try to remember to keep a smile in my heart even if I can’t manage to plaster one on my face. I listen to WAY-FM so I only hear music that’s encouraging to me and I hear DJs that make me smile instead of irritate me. And I try to remember that letting stress get to me isn’t going to help me out in the long run – it’ll generally only make matters worse for me mentally. Which isn’t to say that I never let things bother me, because things do sometimes. I just make myself get over it instead of stewing in a boiling pot of frustration. Whatever the problem, it could always be worse and God really is in control even though I might not think so at the moment. I remember that first and foremost. The light at the end of the tunnel really isn’t the headlight of an oncoming train!!
So when life, work, whatever starts to get you down and stress starts to tear you up, just take a page from Pollyanna’s book and look for the good, make a commitment to always have a smile hiding somewhere and relax – there’s always tomorrow
Cool. Thanks for mentioning WAY-FM so positively too.