Stress Positions (2024) Starring John Early

Not surprisingly the topic is stress

So I'm going to kick off but saying that for 26 years I ran a company with between 15 and 25 staff. Huge stress levels everyday multiplied during recessions. Two directors who didn't look out for my mental health. Two disabled children and my partner who had to work around school times. Only driver in my household. My legs is pinned together and I have no spleen so COVID was fun. I bought in the majority of sales for the company adding more stress about paying bills and wages. No management at the company below really. Played a fair bit of golf but was never happy with the score so more stress. No sign off owning a house and three landlords decided to sell and gave us no time. Father had a series of strokes and is bed ridden so my 85 year old mother is his carer and I need to drive down there a lot to help.

So what's the one thing missing above ?

Add gambling in and life is chaos. Not just the money but the time and the mental wellbeing to be present.

My life was run at 250 miles per hour and in the wrong direction. 

If course what I needed was to calm down and slow down. Couldn't do that with gambling in my life. Once I stopped I listened to what people said about beating the urges and replacing dopamine with things like walking, reading, hobbies and meditation. Not only do they work for dopamine but they also calm me down and remove stress. Routine also works to reduce stress as I'm not worrying about what I have to do each day. Just write it down and work through it.

Connection and talking to people is also really good. Talking through problems is great to remove stress.

All I really wanted to remind myself is that when stressful situations come along, reach for the tool box and turn stress into serenity