Friday, February 12, 2016

Stress is Everywhere

Nothing can affect the mind and body as adversely as stress.
Stress is inevitable whether it is triggered by physical conditions that I struggle with daily like pain or sleep deprivation or other events or other people.

Another source of stress is when a product is not working well
or a rotten customer service rep who is of no help.
Just recently I received a postcard offering me a free tracfone upgrade since a phone we use is on a 2g network which is ending.   I called the number and the customer rep was uninformed saying I had to buy a phone so I hung up very frustrated.  Luckily, the facebook customer rep was much more helpful.  (still dreading activating the new phone after its arrival). More stress.

or last night I was excited to watch the season premiere of Scandal ruined by an unexplainable broadcast problem which distorted the picture.  Whatever it was, it thankfully cleared up on its own about an hour later.  Meanwhile,I was dreading another FIOS service call after losing service after the blizzard for 3 days.  FIOS finally fixed the wire that needed fixing but after resetting our services, no longer gave us the free Max and Starz VOD which was part of our 2 year contract.   So we negotiated to get one of the channel for free for 6 months but of course that change too took another phone call when the channel did not automatically appear as promised. More stress.

or my frustration when neither Chrome or Firefox would enable downloading from Toutbox after it changed its name.  My usual stubbornness kicked in and I was able to resolve these new obstacles.  Now Streamnation is ending.  More stress.

Just about every medical visit for my husband, son and myself has created stress by inept medical insurance issues.  Hopefully several phone calls has eliminated most of those issues but come on, in this world of automation why do I have to make the calls to doctor and lab billing departments to determine why a bill has not been paid or a lab result not received????  I had such a runaround this past summer over a bone density exam I stupidly let my doctor talk me into.  Just stress, stress and more unnecessary stress for nothing.  OMG it took a zillion calls during open season to convert our federal medical insurance to the new one-plus-one from a family plan to save $8 a month.   This should have been enabled much easier for federal employees and retirees. More stress.

Another source of stress can be just a rotten person.
My worse stress has been because of toxic people who just thrive off of creating stress for others.  However, the last extended pity party I stayed at too long taught me a huge lesson.   The longer I stayed, the harder it was to leave.  So even now at the age of 66, I am learning not to stay or refuse the invitation altogether.  The only person who can made us happy or happier is ourselves.  I am determined not to give that power away and accept pity party invitations from miserable people.

Stress is a daily visitor to everyone but it is how we deal with it that can make a huge difference in our attitude and health.
Yes it is hard to stay positive with all of the negatives surrounding us.
 Moving to music is my magic bullet for relieving stress.
I will not accept invitations to pity parties and will continue to avoid toxic people.

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