Write Your Way Out Of Holiday Stress!

The countdown has begun. You’re already up to your neck in the list of everyday tasks, now you have to add the holiday ones! Good news…when you start writing down your anxieties and stresses, instead of letting them float around in your brain, they will become easier to deal with!

So start busting your stress by putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. The act of writing about your frustrations is not only good therapy but will also help you gain insights into the causes of your stress.

Set aside 15 minutes a day to write about what’s bugging you.  At the end of the week, turn them into “vignettes” which are 2 to 3 paragraphs with a humorous or sad or spiritual point of view. Or just reread them and get angry, then decide what you can eliminate from your holiday load.  This will help you get a handle on what is bugging you! At work you can get everyone together in your office and have each person write down what they love about the holidays thus creating a group “story”.  Also, remain positive, spread some joy. Post a few positive messages to the company website or blog. And don’t forget to send hand written thank you notes or cards to clients and vendors. They’ll be unexpected and appreciated.

These tips come from my 7-page e-booklet of tips, “Write Your Way Out Of Holiday Stress!” that was based upon my actual experiences as a writer and that worked for me.  I have used them year after year and see them as a better solution to conquering my stresses than chocolate or alcohol! The sections in this e-booklet cover: “Stress Busting Your Personal Life”, “Banishing the Grinch from Business and Career”, “Words As Gifts”.  If you would like a FREE copy, e-mail me Beyond-Words@att.net and put “busting stress” in the subject line.

Quote of the Week

Change is inevitable so don’t fight it, initiate it! – anonymous

Quote of the Week

“When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.”
-Edward Teller

Fun With Language

We all could use a laugh these days. Here are four I found in the Readers Digest!

Dumb warning labels:
On a baby stroller – “Remove child before folding.”
On a brass fishing lure with a three-pronged hook on the end – “Harmful if swallowed.”
On a cartridge for a laser printer – “Do not eat toner.”

And this last one beats them all:
On a carpenter’s electric drill – “This product is not intended for use as a dental drill.”

Quote of the Week

I was one of the lucky ones in that hurricane Sandy didn’t destroy my home. All I had was no power for 11 days. After all I’ve been through I loved this quote I came across in an old issue of Readers Digest, by Suze Orman:

“When you can be as happy in your sadness as you are in your happiness, then you know the key to life. If something bad happens, you accept it because you have true faith that everything really does happen for the best.”

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

A good speaker or writer can paint a picture through the choice of words and the structures of sentences. Gov. Chris Christie of NJ did a fine job of relating the terrible devastation to our shore. Even with only a radio’s audio I could “see” how sad he was, how he was grieving the loss of places that held memories and were a part of his NJ.

However, it wasn’t until I actually saw a picture of Seaside Heights’ ferris wheel tossed into the ocean that the reality hit home.

There is something visceral about an image that written or spoken words can never match. Maybe that’s why we’ve become a species so addicted to our television and internet pages laced with graphics. The graphic novel, comics, and Manga, have also caught on in our western culture. Are we moving away from writing or do images touch a primal emotional center of our brain far better than words?

 The visual arts have always held a prime place in the cultural artistic focus. Maybe it’s just all about “eye candy” but what I know is that the photo of Seaside Heights hit me more than any word ever could. I felt the same during 9/11, glued to the tv set all day watching image after image being replayed.

 But in the end I had to go down to Ground Zero. Maybe because images, though they carry more “data” than words, are not the real thing. I wish I would have gone to the Jersey shore this year before it was mutilated. Now I want to go to see first hand what has happened. To hear the gulls cry and the surf pound over the sad remnants of what I remember. You see, pictures may be worth a thousand words but you still can’t touch, smell or hear the pulse of life through them.

Quote of the Week

A quote for election week:

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value.” – Albert Einstein