Understanding Creative Stress Relief - Part 2
Making A Choice That Works For You
When you eliminate something bad from your daily life it tends to leave an empty space that needs to be filled.
It's your choice to fill it with something bad,
or with something good for you.
Here Are A Few Stress Examples to Ponder
1.
Ask someone who used to hate their job (bad stress) if being terminated, or even quitting on their own, really solved the problem. Unless they had another job to go to, chances are they'd give just about anything to have that crappy job back. This is the most extreme example I can think of to make the point of needing a replacement for something we get rid of.
2.
Here's another one -- less extreme, but just as important. Remember the term "Empty Nest Syndrome"? That's when the last of the kids finally moves out and leaves the parents with nobody to care for. Sometimes one or the other would prefer to have the kids back than to be alone.
They have to learn all over again how to care for each other the way they did in the beginning, and allow the grown children to become "extended family" instead of dependents. Not all couples are successful in this trade-off unless they've learned Creative Stress Relief.
3.
When I retired and moved in with other family members to consolidate assets and reduce expenses, it became a major process for me to learn how to give up "things" I'd spent a lifetime accumulating and treasuring. At first it was awful to find out other people didn't put the same value on my hard-earned belongings --- one man's treasure IS another man's trash sometimes. I don't blame them. It was just something I had to learn the hard way because I hadn't stopped to think about it before.
Now I let things go more easily because I'm replacing them with something new. That's what quilting has turned out to be for me. I love having new possibilities filling my mind instead of old baggage.
I'm not necessarily good at the craft, my failing eyesight tells me one thing and the measurements prove to be different -- straight lines are seldom straight (see Lemonade Quits). But it's still fun to "play" with fabric, stitch it together straight or curved, and wind up with a gift of love for someone in the family, or a friend, or one of the worthy recipients like the Linus group.
