Stress Management II.

This week, my doctor didn't find my stress levels nearly as amusing as I wrote about last week.  In fact, he was stoic as he issued a stern warning; "unmanaged stress can spiral into something worse".

"Like what?"

I'm not going to give fledgling mood disorders any currency here.  Instead, as ordered, I will work on identifying, really identifying, stressors and take steps to eliminate them.  The first is to keep a stress journal, which is perfect because I've already chronicled years of stress here.  In the mean time, here are my first efforts:

Wednesday: I bought myself flowers from the flower booth at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.   They are all swell people, and have fantastic flowers and smiles for everyone.  I wonder if being a flower farmer is stressful. They sure don't act like it.

Thursday: I moved my blog over to a real domain, burwellgeneralstore.com.  I would link to it, but you're already here.  This doesn't really relieve stress as much as it crosses a thing off my list which indirectly lowers stress, and gives me a shameless opportunity to ask if you'll share my blog with others if you enjoy it. 

While researching stress on the internets, I found this site.  I love cartoons about daily life and this one is called Sneaky Hate Spiral, which should explain itself at Hyperbole and a Half.

Thursday, lunchtime: I went on an aromatherapy mission and picked up some new shampoo and deodorant.  At least if I'm going to be stressed, I'm gonna smell good. The products came with a really loaded question.  I'll put it on the list of things to figure out as I'm trekking my way back down Stress Mountain.

I really do get stressed out by driving in Los Angeles, that wasn't a joke.  For some reason, driving in New York was way less stressful.  The drivers here are all the Only People on the road.  Half of them at best actually check their lanes before they merge, and the other half are going either 80 miles an hour or 20, making it a constant game of Avoid The Five Car Pileup.  Today, a large pipe fitting fell off the back of the truck in front of me, and as it bounced down my lane, it pinballed up and down the underside of my car, scaring the shit out of me.  Good thing it's a rental.  Not entirely sure what to do about this driving stress yet, perhaps walk more, and smell the flowers.