Stressed or Stretched

It's 4:26 am, I've been awake for an hour and don't see much point in going to back to sleep. In my early morning contemplations, I had a little word picture come to mind, one that is helping me to not give in to feelings of being overwhelmed and panicked.

No one's life is free of stress - I think this word could almost be considered an overused word - at least in my circles. "How are you this week?" "Stressed. But okay"
"How are you feeling?" "Stressed" And in a conversation with my almost 10 year old "How was your day at school?" "Stressful". It's sad.

My life has been full of busyness lately - my oldest daughter got married and she and I (and her new husband) planned most of the details. In the midst of this, our business is growing (what a blessing!), and we have been on the verge of alot of change. In fact, I would say that life has been mostly change lately.

This can cause stress. Or perhaps as my little God given visual that came to me this morning points - not stress, but stretch.

Trying to manage stress is a difficult thing - Picture a ball of silly putty (now THIS is a good illustration for me!) - you pull it and pull it, then it begins to resist being pulled, it get's thinner and thinner then all the sudden - snap! It breaks. If it was more elastic it would just continue to stretch and not resist being pulled.

I think that resistance to change (or struggle, depending on the situation) is what causes stress. Fighting against what is happening around you and resisting what is happening does all those horrible things to your body - headaches, high blood pressure, shortened temper - even that anxious pit in the stomach.

But if we could somehow take a different perspective and look at these things in a our life as catalysts instead of hinderances, we might move away from a feeling of stress to a feeling of stretch. If I (because this is my 4 am therapy session) could embrace the change and see this time as a time of God working in me, molding me and making me into the vessle He has created me to be, then maybe some of the feelings of "oh my!" will change into "oh yea!" and the panic and anxiety that are on the fringe of my consciousness would subside and melt away.

Yep, it's 4 am, and I must say that when I've been lying still in bed for 4 hours trying to sleep, and I get up quietly and go into the next room... a good stretch feels mighty good. It's an awakening and a getting ready for movement. And after lying still for a while - movement is good!