| |
| |
|
Stress Management Information |
|
|
|
When Dreams Get Shattered: Picking Up the Pieces
"Smash!" It was a sunny autumn Saturday. My cousins and I were playing baseball in my aunt's back yard. I still recall the crack of the bat and sound of breaking glass as a beautiful line drive sailed right through the center of my aunt's dining-room window. My aunt - who understood that young boys did these things - gave us the chance to do the right thing. She asked us to help her pick up the pieces. After cleaning up the glass, we were able to continue enjoying our game - this time, down at the city park! Challenges help us to develop strength and resiliency. However, there is another aspect of life's challenges to consider. Sometimes things break beyond fixing. Certain mistakes are irreversible. Tragedy may take away our physical abilities or even the life of someone we love. We might spend years preparing for a career or building a relationship only to see it stolen by circumstances beyond our control. Unlike shattered windows, we cannot always replace shattered hopes, dreams, and relationships. However, that is not the end of the story. In times of disappointment, our first course of constructive action may be to pick up the pieces. We need to allow ourselves to feel the pain and move through the grief or sense of unfairness completely before we can start anew. Picking up the pieces is not giving up. It is an act of responsibility and compassion toward the self - a process of cleansing the soul, putting the past in order, and releasing fearful thoughts. It brings closure that allows us to move forward with acceptance, forgiveness, and serenity. Dag Hammarskjold (1905 - 1961), said, "Life only demands from the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have to run away." We have the strength to see life's seemingly unfair demands in a miraculous new way. We can choose to see blessings where the world would have us see only tragedy or regret. Instead of surrendering our aliveness, we find renewed courage and new opportunities to serve humanity. Our greatest blessing is the discovery that we not only have the strength to pick up the pieces of our own shattered dreams, but also to help others rebuild their lives. We can ask the Creator to outshine fear with thoughts of love and compassion. This prayer can reveal blessings even in the toughest of times. A close friend of mine who passed at a young age once wrote, "We will learn to see life's miracles. We will become aware of our spiritual kinship with all of mankind, picking up the pieces when they fall." Indeed, the hardest of times will teach that compassion is one of the greatest miracles when dreams get shattered. "Picking up the pieces when they fall" begins a journey to living anew with love, courage, and hope for a bright future. © Copyright 2005 by Steve Brunkhorst. Steve is a professional life success coach, motivational author, and the editor of Achieve! 60-Second Nuggets of Inspiration, a popular mini-zine bringing great stories, motivational nuggets, and inspiring thoughts to help you achieve more in your career and personal life. Get the next issue by visiting http://www.AchieveEzine.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Stress-Management - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Sometimes C.O.P.I.N.G Is All We Can Do We strive for excellence in our lives, going at full throttle, but sometimes we are faced with a situation where all we do is "hurry up and wait".That's when we need to learn about coping. Moving Through Breakdowns with Transformation Success in recovery, or rather, staying in recovery, is dependent upon a variety of factors. For example, it appears that attending daily NA or AA meetings and staying in communication with ones chosen sponsor will definitely assist an individual in successfully implementing his recovery plan. Are You Leap-Frogging from Vacation to Vacation? Try Lily-Padding... It's summertime and chances are you can remember a summer vacation when life moved at a slower pace. It felt so good to just enjoy the days and nights. Breathe Out Negativity And Stress! If you have never tried combining your breathing exercises with the use of colours I highly recommend you begin.It can really aid in eliminating negative feelings and go a long way towards overcoming anxious situations where you may require that little extra shove to step out into the unknown. Stress Free COBRA If you have recently lost health insurance coverage through your employer from voluntarily or invulnerably termination of employment (excluding reasons of gross misconduct), you and your dependents may be eligible to continue your coverage under COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act). Understanding the basics of how COBRA works and what your options are, can help you make better choices with less stress. Keeping You Stress Free! We function at our best when we are free from stress, relaxed, confident and focused. Feeling the adrenalin flow and achieving a deadline by the skin of our teeth may be exhilarating in the short term but as a way of life can be detrimental to both health and happiness. How to Say No and Let Go of Stress It was one of the first words you learned to say and you used it at every opportunity. Until someone convinced you that you couldn't, or shouldn't. Chewing On Mindfulness: Gum Is Your Secret My grandmother, a feisty and athletic woman in her younger years, was a gum-chewer. She was never without a pack or two of Wrigley's Doublemint gum. 5 Steps to Stress Relief Take a moment to think about the week that just passed. Are your first thoughts of long hours at work, driving your kids to every kind of practice imaginable, hurrying to make dinner, clean the house, do laundry, vacuum and wash dishes? Is it any wonder that in today's busy world, more and more women suffer from stress-induced anxiety than ever before?If you often find yourself struggling with the effect stress has on your physical and emotional well-being, follow the following 5 steps to stress relief:1. Mindfulness and Laughter: Gaining Clarity While Giggling Life is funny.Throughout the day, there are plenty of humorous moments that we tend to ignore. Stress Busting Strategies Learn to have healthy relationships:This subject could fill an entire book. In the limited space of this newsletter, let's look at the key components of this stress-reducing strategy. Conflict Resolution ... What The Heck Are You Thinking? Do you get frustrated with your spouse, your kids, your parents? Maybe you can't stand your boss, or your co-workers drive you up the wall. I'll bet you think that if all these pesky people would just quit bothering you that you'd be really happy, right? Well guess what, you'd just find something else to drive you crazy because you like how it feels. Music Therapy: Can Music Really Soothe The Savage Beast? It has long been suggested that "music soothes the savage beast." But is this true? And if it is, does this have any implication where humans are concerned? The answer, apparently, is yes. 5 Top Tips To Boost Your Spirits 1. Take a relaxing bath. Life Happens Shit happens. I know this to be a fact, because I read it on a t-shirt. Occupational Stress Statistics tell us that more people have migraine headaches on Sunday night and that the rate of heart attacks and heart attack-like symptoms are very high in the early hours of Mondays.. The Jerk is Never Me Comedian George Carlin once remarked, "Have your ever noticed? Anyone going slower than you is an idiot. Anyone going faster than you is a maniac. Assess Your Stress Using Haris Stress Inventory This is a tool to measure the amount of stress you experience in your daily life. 66 statements are included. Managing Stress Do you ever feel stressed? Is stress a regular component of your lifestyle? What exactly is stress? What causes it and what can you do to manage and reduce it?What you experience as stress is the result of your reaction to the events, circumstances, and people you encounter. The more you feel frustrated, a victim, helpless, a target, or picked on, the more you feel stressed. Stress Management and Mastery: The Value of Vitamin NO What part of no don't you understand? - Bumper stickerThe child that never hears no will have a hard time saying no. - Della Reese in "Touched by an Angel"Have you ever noticed how some of the most powerful things in life are also the most simple?So it is with the simply powerful word ``NO.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
