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“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.”Lee Lacocca

The comment of palitoking in my blog ‘Schools of Thought’ puzzled me and made me think. All of us, at any time in our lives, experienced being heavily stressed.

I can feel for palito. I’m not sure if it’s just the Christmas season that makes everyone long for longer time but I definitely feel the pressure! I wish there are longer hours of each day because I can’t seem to do everything that I need to do in 24 hours. Lately, I’ve been cutting big time on my sleep just to accommodate the other activities that I need to finish.

Juggling a lot of roles and responsibilities makes one very stressed. Not to add that there are things that you really wanted to do and yet, there seem to be no time for it. Just for today, I finished editing a book (scheduled for printing tomorrow), attended two meetings, edited more journals and collaterals, answered a lot of text messages and calls from my boss, went to school for my CPE class, tried to eat kwekwek (steamed egg fried with starch with orange coloring) for dinner during our 15-minute break, went home, but bought “balut” (steamed premature egg) along the way for my son who lately, I never had time to assist with his homework. And then at home, I have to write new articles for my blog because blogging is among the things that make me happy these days.

The life of a young professional or “yuppie” is indeed stressful. I was not surprised that there seem to be an increasing concern of health problems (emotionally and physically) among young workers in call center companies. A friend of mine just lamented months back that two of his officemates died of cancer and they’re only in their early 20s. They suspect it’s because of stress.

An officemate whose brother worked as an airport personnel in the States told me that his bro was brought to the hospital and was operated. His doctor believed the cause of his sickness was the energy drinks he usually take to keep him awake so he can keep pace with the demands at work. He’s just in his early 30s.

At the rate we’re going, many of us would not survive and would not experience the “beginning of life at 40.” I would definitely want to avoid this, I want to see my son growing up and for god’s sake, I still wanted to experience a plane ride (pity me)!

The secret? We all know it already but keep on ignoring it and putting it aside. As John Lennon and the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus” put it — “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”

The secret to coping with stress is “living a happy life.” Nothing beats enjoying the finer things in life. I did not say do not worry about things that matter like paying bills, terror boss, @*#sshole boyfriend… etc., my point is ‘do not spend your life wallowing about problems and running after money or your dreams while the precious times of our lives are ticking away from us.’

Michael Jackson said in one of his concert: “Success took my childhood away.” And he’s right. His popularity and wealth took his youth away from him. I even believe I am luckier than him for having a rich and wonderful bank of childhood memories.

These memorabilia help me cope with life especially when I’m stress. After a hard day’s work or a gruesome encounter with a higher-up or a fight with my husband, I look back at these memories and manage a smile. From that smile, I tell myself and actually believe it, that life is okay and “this too shall pass.”

And hey, before I forget, one more thing that helps you fight more wrinkles, indulge in something that you love doing — may it be a massage, a hobby, a trip to the park, whatever… It really works. My CPE class always bring me happiness. I love going back to school and being a student again and I love going to the class and seeing my wonderful classmates who are also yuppies and stressed professionals like me, our sessions are always fun. I don’t care if my eyes wont open because of tiredness, school gives me a nice kind of high that makes me smile all through out our class even during examinations.

Hey… I hope this helped in anyway. Have a stress-free day!

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