Stress and Stress Relief

A high school teacher once told me, "I know the day you will no longer have stress in your life, it's the day you become dead"

So true...

I think people today are under a lot of stress. I blame technology and cell phones for a heavy contribution.. But even folks who can honestly say "I don't have much stress", well, you do have some, right?

SO, fellas, let's list 1) what are our biggest stressors and 2) what helps us reduce stress. We each should be different. The reducing part from one of us may help a brother out.

I will start:

Lefty's biggest stressors:

- The list of tasks I have on my plate in all areas of my life that I keep in one singe to-do list for both work and personal life.

- My cell phone going off non stop all day, 7 days a week between work and personal life.

- People who's extra talking (mostly at work) leads to less tangible productivity of which I have to pick up the slack for their time wasted and slacking


Lefty's stress relief:

- Go out to my back yard and burn papers, grass, boxes, wood, etc. I like to burn things

- Shoot cans with water in them, my hillside behind my house, cardboard, whatever.

- Telling myself to forget about everything on my plate, and that only the thing at hand matters

- My new job as a part-time police officer, believe it or not, is a stress relief. IMO, working in both, the field of IT is 100x more stress than law enforcement.

- This community of SS. We are a true elite group of people here fellas. Even as a veteran in dealing with life crisis, I feel like I can come here and get the support I need as a man to fill in the gaps of life that I can't otherwise fill in myself. What I can't figure out, you guys always can.

Stress is the worst damn thing. What is your comment about how you stress, and how you deal with it?



Edit: must not forget about my dog too. He causes me less stress most of the time

logicallefty said:

A high school teacher once told me, "I know the day you will no longer have stress in your life, it's the day you become dead"

So true...

I think people today are under a lot of stress. I blame technology and cell phones for a heavy contribution.. But even folks who can honestly say "I don't have much stress", well, you do have some, right?

SO, fellas, let's list 1) what are our biggest stressors and 2) what helps us reduce stress. We each should be different. The reducing part from one of us may help a brother out.

I will start:

Lefty's biggest stressors:

- The list of tasks I have on my plate in all areas of my life that I keep in one singe to-do list for both work and personal life.

- My cell phone going off non stop all day, 7 days a week between work and personal life.

- People who's extra talking (mostly at work) leads to less tangible productivity of which I have to pick up the slack for their time wasted and slacking


Lefty's stress relief:

- Go out to my back yard and burn papers, grass, boxes, wood, etc. I like to burn things

- Shoot cans with water in them, my hillside behind my house, cardboard, whatever.

- Telling myself to forget about everything on my plate, and that only the thing at hand matters

- My new job as a part-time police officer, believe it or not, is a stress relief. IMO, working in both, the field of IT is 100x more stress than law enforcement.

- This community of SS. We are a true elite group of people here fellas. Even as a veteran in dealing with life crisis, I feel like I can come here and get the support I need as a man to fill in the gaps of life that I can't otherwise fill in myself. What I can't figure out, you guys always can.

Stress is the worst damn thing. What is your comment about how you stress, and how you deal with it?



Edit: must not forget about my dog too. He causes me less stress most of the time

Click to expand...

Those are not good signs you know? you know that fire worship is one of the many signs of a sociopathic personality? so is the research of position of power.

Btw I can relate.

Anyway I find stressful any situation that requires my unwilling attention or where I dont have control, Im fine sitting in the post office waiting 1 hour for my turn while it really bothers me to be in shopping center with some other people and have to wait them cause the car belongs to some of them.

Pretty much any limit on my freedom of movement and action stress me.

The gym is the holy grail when it comes of fighting stress and relax, not only the active part but also the rituals of preparing the shakes to take in the bag or drink the pre workout according to a schedule.

Its also stressing to be involved in things I dont believe in or dislike, for example taxes (Im talking about socialist european union) since Im sure I can do much better by myself rather than as a item in a group.
However its refreshing to find any possible way to limit such things while at the same time getting the biggest benefit out of it, it becomes some kind of revenge.

Work and money are my biggest stressors, and worrying about my kids. I don't see either changing, so I best learn how to release stress

logicallefty said:

- My new job as a part-time police officer, believe it or not, is a stress relief. IMO, working in both, the field of IT is 100x more stress than law enforcement.

Click to expand...

Tell me a little more about this. How do you get part-time employment as a cop? I've always wanted to get into it.

Anyways, other stress relievers for me are alcohol and physical exercise.

W33D bro

1) what are our biggest stressors

Currently, my parents - namely my father. He has this need to talk to me on the phone every day, even if he has nothing to talk about. When I'm not available for a few days, he gets pissed off at me. The worst part about talking to him is he's always talking about my ex-wife. I generally don't think about the bytch when I'm not dealing with her, but my dad never has a problem bringing her up.

Also, my divorce is still stressing me, mainly the amount of money I'm going to have to pay my lawyer for his 5hitty service. There's so many better things I could be spending that money on.

Notice that work isn't on my list? They got rid of our 5hitty manager, and things have been fantastic at work ever since. I really do love my job.


2) what helps us reduce stress.

Listening to music, playing music, writing music, singing music. I also have a restoration job that I'm working on which has been frustrating the hell out of me, but it's kind of a good frustration that keeps my mind off the things that are bothering me.

Now that the warm weather is almost here, I'll soon be able to strap on my rollerblades and just go do that.

I also love to drive. I'll take the truck out, put on some good music, and just drive. It lets my brain do what it needs to do and I'll come home feeling better.

@Speed_dawg - In Illinois the Police Training and Standards Board has a part-time program which includes a part-time academy that you go to on weekends and online for about 8 months vs going to the full time academy M-F for usually 12 weeks. Its the exact same training but spread out. You take the same certification test as full time. Biggest difference #1 is that with the part-time certification you can only work up to like 1500 hours a year. Biggest difference #2 is that you can put yourself through the full time academy even before no department hires you, but with the part-time academy, you must be hired somewhere first. Other than this, you are sworn in just like a full time cop and you have 100% of the same arrest powers, etc. A part time officer can carry a gun off duty nation wide under HR 218 just like the full time. It's a great program! Part time officers generally don't get burnt out like full time ones do. Most do it because they love the work, so they tend to be less strung out, less jaded, less bitter about the job, etc.

@Desdinova re #1 - Oh yes, been there.. People want to poke and prod and talk about negative things from the past when all you want to do is move forward. We could probably have a whole thread on whats going on with your father. Indeed. I have a couple buddies who are like this. My mother can be but I can tell her "mom I dont want to talk about this" and she always backs off and says "Yes you are right we should just forget about XXX and move on"

Great thread, keep it going