Today, being Monday, the first after New Year’s Day, is the beginning of the first work week of 2009. While many people look forward to “getting back to it”, evidently many more do not. As I surfed the news websites, imagine my rolling eyes as I came across this following article from The Daily Mail in the UK. See my additional comments below, after you read this short article:
Feeling stressed? You ought to have a tantrum
Last updated at 1:24 AM on 05th January 2009
The end of the holidays, cold weather and economic gloom will make today one of the most stressful days of the year for returning to work.
But experts have come up with an unlikely remedy – throwing a tantrum.
‘Releasing tension through shouting and screaming is a really beneficial way to expel the negative energies caused by stress,’ said body language expert Judi James, the Big Brother psychologist.
Experts say throwing a tantrum can help people deal with stress.
‘When stress threatens to overwhelm you, try a short sustained burst of shouting, or alternatively, go somewhere quiet, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to help calm you down.’
The advice comes as a survey reveals that people are most likely to be irritated by colleagues eating noisily (28 per cent), sniffing (26 per cent), talking too loudly on the phone (21 per cent) and even singing (5 per cent).
Researchers found only one in ten prefer to sit quietly to combat tension, while more than a third admitted to having tantrums.
The Sound Or Silence Poll from the RNLI was released in the run-up to the lifeboat charity’s fundraising SOS Day 2009 on January 30.
My comments:
- Can stress be caused by such things as: end of the holidays, cold weather and economic gloom? Absolutely.
- Is tantrum throwing the proper (biblical) way to handle such stress? Absolutely not.
- How then can one address these three areas of stress inducers? How about this:
- Realize that returning to work is going to allow you to demonstrate your faith in Jesus Christ. We are challenged to work as “for the Lord rather than man”. This changes the focus of the whys and how tos of our employment.
- Cold weather is given to us by a sovereign God. While the sun consistently seems to fail in penetrating the cold, gray clouds of winter, we never doubt it’s existence. The same is true of our God – in so many dark times of trial and upheaval in our lives, God seems absent. But He is there, and we know that soon, as He chooses, He will make the warmth of His presence known to us again.
- Are we in the midst of economic upheaval and unrest? Certainly! Perhaps the stress brought on by these recent downturns simply shows us what we really trust in. Now is the perfect time to re-evaluate where we find our security: financial or otherwise.
My suggestion for handling stress is not to throw a tantrum, but to refocus on the God of peace and to determine to investigate what His Word has to say concerning each and every area of life.
