Bernie Michalik's posterous site

First, I try to care of the fundamentals: regular sleep time, eating, moderating exercise, moderating caffeine intake (especially from sources other than coffee, like diet pop) and forced breaks/relaxing. So often I skip over these and wonder why I am stressed.

Second: I try to get some help if I am overwhelmed with things. For example, getting someone to help with the kids. Or taking on some of my work.

Third: I try to skip some non-essential stuff. If I feel overwhelmed, I make a list and see how many things I have to do, versus how many thing I think I should do. The should list is always way too long.

Fourth: I make sure I am not being overly pessimistic. Two ways I do that: a) I make sure I am following the optimist's approach to looking at things using the three Ps (I've blogged about that here early). b) I keep a log of my pessimistic thoughts, where I write down what I fear will happen, what actually happened, and how I can think of it differently. This has been great at demolishing my pessimistic way of thinking, by showing me how often I get it wrong when I am pessimistic.

Fifth: I don't do this often, but the "what's the worst that can happen" analysis is something people use. I add to that by adding: "and what will happen after that". For example, write out what the worst thing is that can happen, and what you can do to deal with that. And then think and write out: what will happen after that. It helps expose how resilient and adaptable we all are.

Sixth: Buffer or armor yourself with goodness, be it thinking positively, asking for and getting affection, treating yourself....you name it. It is hard to be stressed and laughing, for example.