Stress Free Method #9 Music and Pets

I went out and was asking my friends.... What calms you from stress? Almost all of them mentioned these two things: Music and Pets. What a combination huh.

#9 Music and Pets

It is amazing how little things can affect big things. Just to turn on some soft music, or music you enjoy listening too can actually calm your nerves. When I put on music (I like a lot of kinds especially: Christian, Jazz, Classical, Oldies, Pop…ok ok this can go on for a while) it relaxes me. It is a meditation in itself. I like to also put on sounds of the ocean, I can close my eyes (remember to rest) and pretend I am there. This takes my mind off of the stress at hand. This lets me relax and clears my mind. That way I can take on the problem with a fresh new start.

Also, having a pet can actually lower your stress level. I have read so many things about how petting a animal can lower your stress level. This is great! (Especially if you are an animal lover and you are non-allergic). This also keeps you from going into extremes because you know you have to care for something. I met a person that once told me if they didn’t have any pets, they probably would have done suicide already. But they can’t stand the idea of leaving them with anyone.

Todays Challenge: Go put on some music grab your pet and dance lol. Ok maybe not in that order. Go put on music and relax to it or have fun with it. Take your pet and give them a good brushing, pet them to let them know they are loved.

~Hugs Keyria~

Stress Free Method #8 Family and Friends support

Many people dont like the idea of asking for help. They would rather try to finish the goal at hand on thier own. They dont realize that asking for help may be the the solution they needed:

#8 Support from Friends and Family

Invite over your friends or family. Whenever you stress a good stress reliever is having another person being around. It is amazing how we can stress and then a call from a friend or a visit from them can make that stress just vanish. Friends and Family will take our minds off of stress, they have this magical touch to cheer you up. They start it off by making you laugh, they keep you laughing and follow to the end with laughter. They can be the solution to any problem you may have, all you have to do is ask.

“It is hard to be stressed when my friends show up. They make me laugh and release my tension I am having. I will be cleaning house and you all know that cleaning house is not a fun chore. Yet, a friend showed up and we laughed as they helped me clean. We were doing mop shows and singing at the top of our lungs as we danced with the dust pan and broom. We had a blast. It didn’t seem like the mess I had before and the stress was gone. We often kidnap each other and run to the beach alot. This makes it hard for us to be down when we are out in the water having fun.”

Isn't it amazing how a friend knows the right words to say to make you laugh? Or how your family knows the right words that can make you feel comforted and safe? Yet we take asking friends and family for granted. We just assume they can not help when in reality they may be the only solution left. They may be the ones that can cure the stress and finish the goal. We assume the wouldn't want to help with our little problem. Yet if you ask friends and family they always have an open ear to listen and a mouth to give good advice through. They also feel comforted when you share with them. The best of it all is that they are close to you so you don't have to feel judged. They dont look down on you instead they are filled with love for you.

Todays Challenge: So what are you waiting for? Go tell your family, go tell your friends why it is that you are stressing. Brainstorm together and find a way for you to overcome this feeling. Go have a fun filled day with them or even a few minutes. Let everything out and just enjoy the company. If you can treat them out (to the movies, dinner or whereever) maybe they are the ones that need to destress.

Ready for another method? Well than come back tomorrow to get it.

~Hugs Keyria~

And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:18~

Stress Free Method #7 They joy of a catnap

Ok so I am sure we all have been told this one before. In fact throughout our life we were told this one. From being a child and our parent saying "You'd better be asleep when I walk in that room" whether that was our nap time or bed time we knew our parents meant it. Then as we got older we would hear others all over saying how important sleep is. I remember being little and thinking how can you want to sleep there is soooo much to do. Yet as I grew up I found myself more and more exhausted and thinking if only I could have a break.... a nap. Just a small catnap.

#7 REST

We all need it. Sometimes all it is for us to stress is that our body is lacking sleep. Go take a nap for a little bit. If you are at a place that you can’t take a nap, then take a break and rest for a bit. Just closing your eyes for 15 minutes can help your body feel more relaxed. We need to try and get our full 7-8 hours of sleep in. If we can’t then our body will react on us and not always in a good way. We may have bags under our eyes or we may fall asleep in a very important meeting we were supposed to hear. Some may get headaches or can’t focus clearly. Rest is really important if you even think you need close your eyes then do. Your body is telling you it needs to rest.

“I work long hours at a very fast pace job. It is always rushing around, loud noises, and fast talking. As soon as my break hits I do the opposite. I put on a little music and I rest my head as if everything were slow around me. I don’t move I just stay still and let the music dance slowly in my head. This helps me to feel more relaxed when I go back to work after my break. I get to just slow down and feel a refreshed start again.”

Todays Challenge: Take a 15minute cat nap today. You may be surprised about the results of the rest of your day! Well I will see you tomorrow for another stress-free method.

~Hugs Keyria~

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" ~Matthew 11:28

Stress Free Method #6 Be a child at heart

I don't want to grow up I love being a kid, there are lots of toys that I play with from video games, bikes and planes, I just want to be a a kid, .... of course the song for that goes differently and is for a toy store but basically that was our thought process as we got older. A lot of us take for granted the youth we once had. We wanted to grow up so fast that we completely missed the joy of being that kid. The 6th method is:

6) Be a Kid Again

Have you noticed how when you were a very little kid nothing really worried you? You were fearless, brave, you didn't understand pain until it happened. You were free to run around and a play. Your stress wasn’t there in your life at that age (..In most cases that is). Pretend you are a kid and go back to doing kid activities. This, like finding a hobby will change your thoughts to focus on something else.

Here are a few kid activities you could do.
*Play legos (we even have lego land out there for us big kids)
* Color, draw, Paint
* Sing a silly song
* Dance a little
* Read a story book or a comic book
* Play with play dough or finger-paint
* Have a water balloon fight, Water gun or even paint ball.
* Play tag or lazer tag
* Go to an amusement park, they're a playground for big kids and little kids of ALL ages)
* Play a video game. A fun gaming site is Online Games Your Way

When we act like a child our worries are not there. We do not know what stress is or even what it means. To us we only know that we want to be Peter Pan the boy that stayed a boy forever (that is unless you watched Hook). The second star to the right and straight on till morning is Neverland, a place that we all need to go back and visit.

Todays Challenge: What was your favorite childhood activity? Write a comment or email me and let me know. Then I want you to relive one of the activities: Go get on a swing at a park, go play with playdough, paint or color, or pull out a old kids board game and get your friends and family involved. You will remember how much fun it was to be a kid or even what it was like to be a kid.

~Hugs Keyria~


"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." ~Jesus in Mark 10:14~

Stress Free Method #5 Hobbies

This is one of my favorite stress free methods

#5 Find a Hobby

When stress hits always STOP whatever you are doing and do something you enjoy doing. Find a hobby. Hobbies are things you enjoy doing. This will cause your mind to focus on something fun and pleasurable that it will calm down the stress. Hobbies are great because they are part of who you are. Not only that they can sometimes take off and become a source of income. You can have a career in your hobby.

I know many people who have different hobbies. Like Adam who played football that was a fun activity but for those who play it alot more it can be a fun hobby. I know guys who love sports. I have a friend that plays the piano non-stop. It is very hard to pull him away from it. The piano is his hobby. Maybe that is a hobby for you to find a instrument and start to learn how to play it. I have another friend that loves to do arts and crafts like scrapbooking and stamping. I know a friend that likes to draw and another who collects things. One of my friend makes me laugh her hobby she says is to color. I myself love Photography. This allows me to go out on walks or different places and see something that God made so beautiful and try to capture that exact moment. My other hobby is traveling, I love to go to the ocean. But it is not always easy to just get up and go so try to find a hobby that you can do anywhere at any time like photography.

Todays Challenge: So find a hobby you enjoy and can do any time you need to. Once you find the hobby start working on it by hands on and researching.

TR's Work From Home Ideas, Tips and Resources is a site that talks about turning your hobbies into profit as well as much more.

What are some of the hobbies you like to do? Comment or write a message about your hobbies. See you tomorrow with # 6.

~Hugs Keyria~

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 1:6 New International Version

Stress Free Methods #1-3 breathe, enviornment, change mind

Hello all. Did you miss me? I missed you. I haven’t been on in the last two days because I had a goal which had a deadline I needed to finish. This goal was to make a lesson and teach it to kids the next day. I decided to put all my focus into that and learning what I needed to make sure the lesson ran through smoothly. And great news the goal was completed successfully. Yes I did do a few other things but I didn’t overwhelm myself with trying to do EVERYTHING. I picked a few goals out and worked on them. Focusing mainly on the deadline one. I was even blessed to go see a couple of movies at the theater which I normally don’t do often. And I did a small bit of cleaning around the house. I told myself that if the other goals didn’t get done it would be ok. For those goals were not hurting anyone, wasn’t a do or die situation and it would still be there later for me to pick up where I left off.

I wanted to give you some tips on destressing. There are many ways to do this. Each person deals with stress differently as I have said before. So for the following week or so I will be giving you a tip or a way that you may destress your life. Now some of these you may have already heard before, some you may already do and some you may not do. However some of these you may have wanted to try. These are just ideas for you to go out and use and see which one works for you. People say all the time I have tried everything and I still stress…. But have they really tried everything?? For the next week or so I want you to try each one of the following and write me to say which ones worked or did not work for you. You would be surprised at what may work and what you would think does work doesn’t really work.

#1: Breathe

The very first thing we should do is focus on our breathing. As soon as you feel stress is coming on stop whatever you are doing and focus on your breathing. Most people don’t focus on breathing. They are too busy worrying that they may find that they stop breathing for a period of time. This causes your heart to overwork. It may cause many different symptoms like chest pain that we saw with Tommy or it may even cause a heart attack. Breathing is the very essential of our life. We need to breathe to live. So when you start feeling stressed out STOP whatever it is that is going on around you and focus on your breathing

A friend of mine remembered a time when she got on to her first roller coaster. She was very frightened. She started to feel very stressed and kept thinking “What am I doing? I need to get off of this thing” before the ride even started. But before she had a chance to say anything the roller coaster took off. Her friends were screaming and smiling and laughing enjoying the ride while she was holding on for her life and was tightened all over. When the first downward motion of the train happened she started to panic, turning white all over. “Relax” She told herself. Realizing that she was holding her breathe. “Just breathe.” So for the rest of the ride she focused on breathing in and out. After the ride was finished she realized it wasn’t that bad. You just have to relax and let your stress go. She actually went back on the same roller coaster!

Because I was off for two days I decided to give you two more:

#2:Change of Environment

This is one thing I can say really does help. If you are cooped up in a room all day just a step outside for five minutes to get a breath of fresh air can make a world of a difference. You need to be able to change your surroundings. When most stress it is because of the situation they are in at that moment. So to distress take away the situation. Move away from it. This change causes your body to relax more. This does not mean run from the situation but like above take a breather. Just being out in the sun can help a person who has been cooped up way from the sun. That natural light helps reenergize us.

“I work all day inside a cubicle in a office. There are hardly any windows and the lights are not the brightest. It is tedious work. It can be very mind draining at times. There is so much paper work that it can get very stressful. To help me from stressing so much I go out and take a walk around the block. I love the fresh air.This helps me to clear my mind and focus more.” ~Kimberly a business executive.

#3: Clear Your Mind

Redirect your thoughts to more positive things. It is the same aspect as looking as a child. When they have gotten something they are not supposed to we take what they are not supposed to have but replace it with something they can have. Example a young child found a pen and has started to scribble in a book. To redirect we would take away the pen and book but lead them to a table with crayons and plain sheets of paper. So to redirect your mind is to change your mindset. This can be hard at times but luckily there are many methods out there that can help you do this.

*Meditate
*Pray
*Yoga/Exercise
*Call a friend
*Read a Book
*Watch TV
*Watch a movie
*Look up jokes
* That is just a few I am sure you can make a list of more ways.

With each tip I am going to have a challenge. I want you to try and do each one of those challenges. It is only one a day and they are not very hard. We will start with today;

Todays Challenge: JUST BREATHE! Yep, it is that easy lol. All I want you to do today is breathe. If you start to feel stress come on. Stop what you are doing and breathe.

Until Next time....

~Hugs Keyria~


Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. ~Proverbs 3:3 ~

Tommys Story continued again

Tommy had thought of a plan that night.

A few days later he was in his room late at night. He had started to pack some clothes for him and his brother, he grabbed a few necessary items, and some money he had saved from doing odd jobs his parents didn’t know about. (He never did get allowance from his parents). Ok I think I have everything he thought and she shoved it into his backpack. He was all ready that morning to leave the house. He had an extra bag with more items needed and he was glad it was a bit cold outside to give him an excuse for them to have their jackets. He knew it was going to get cold for what he was doing.

“What do you go there?” His dad asked as he was heading out the door. “Oh it is my art project for school I didn’t want it to get smashed inside my school backpack.” “That looks pretty big let me see” Tommy froze right then he heard a honk. “oh there is our ride, I will show you when I get home.” Tommy said running out the door with his little brother. They ran over to the bus which his mother had agreed to let him and his little brother take this morning. They hopped on and sat down. Sharp pain happened again in his chest. He was getting used to how to stop it. He held his breath and waited. Sure enough it ended after a little bit. They hopped off the bus and started on their way to school. Before they got there Tommy told joshy to turn down a road before.

Joshy looked confused but he obeyed. They headed towards the end of the street. They walked for quite some time until they had made their way to the train station. Tommy handed a paper to the person selling tickets. She took it read it then looked at him. “Ok so you two are going to visit your grandma.” She said not really in a question but a statement. “Why can’t parents be more responsible? I know you are old enough but still I can’t imagine having my highschooler going off alone. ” She sighed and told him how much it was. Tommy was holding onto joshy’s hand tightly. He relaxed his grip as soon as she handed him the tickets. His plan was working. A few nights ago when he thought of the plan he worked everything out. One of his ideas was to call in advance the next day to order tickets. He used a pay phone near school to call in to the train station and pretended to be his father.

They sat down and waited for a train. He was grateful joshy was being so quiet and not asking questions. He wondered if joshy knew what was going on. But he didn’t want to ask him right then. Not there at the station where someone could overhear them. The train came and they boarded. A few minutes later they were gone away from the place that he had horrid nightmares from. Away from that awful stressful place.

For Tommy this was the only solution he could think of. To run away from the stress, To run away and save his brother from the pain. Many of us are like this. We cope by pushing it to the back of our heads, pretending there was never any stress or trying to run away. But is that really how we can cope with it?? In reality it comes back to us.

Sadly I would love to say Tommy’s story was a happy ever after but…

A few months had gone by they were living on the streets. Tommy was very protective of his brother and they learned where to avoid walking. Tommy found a few odd jobs but money for food was scarce, and joshy was getting sicker then he had ever seen him get. To top it off his chest pains were more frequent and he was more scared for their lives than ever. He thought this was a stress free plan but it turns out it only added stress. They were in fear of going home so they hid every time they say cops. They were in fear of certain alleys and fear of not finding a spot to sleep at night. He was able to get one blanket into a bag of course it was a light weight throw blanket but it kept joshy warmer at night. What did I get us into? Tommy Thought?

Each person deals with stress differently. Phillip at first pushed it to the back of his mind, but then he faced it head on. Tommy ran away from it. He ran to try and save him and his brother but running away and pushing it to the back of their heads seemed to be backfiring. I wonder if Tommy will find a way out of the situation, away that will cure all this stress. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

~Hugs Keyria~



"I come to You for protection, O Lord, my God. Save me from my persecutors-rescue me!" Psalm 7:1

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He recues those whose spirits are crushed." Psalm 34:18

Tommy's Story continued

Yay your back well lets find out what happens :)

As school started his thoughts were far from the subject being taught.

During break Phillip and his girl Dawn came by. “Hey I have an idea. Why don’t you study with us on the breaks and after school come get some grub and do your schoolwork.” Phillip said excitedly. Tommy smiled “The breaks may work but I have to be home for chores after school. I am not allowed to dilly dally as my parents call it. Thanks guys you really are good friends. “So for the rest of the break Phillip tried to help him with school work. Phillip could see Tommy’s mind wonder away from the school work and he knew this was going to be a bigger struggle for Tommy than it was for him. Tommy gathered his things got his little brother and was on his way home. His little brother had a bruise on his arm that he doesn’t remember if he saw in the morning or not. “What happened?” He asked him.

His brother kept quiet and looked down. “Did someone in your class do this to you?” The little boy shook his head no. “Did someone at school do this to you?” He asked thinking maybe it was someone in a different class, but again his little brother shook his head no. He looked at him and could see the tears swelling up in his eyes. “Who did this?”He asked again getting upset with the person who did it even though he was not to sure who that was right now. The little boy kept quiet.

At home Tommy finished doing all the chores on a paper that his mother pinned to his bedroom door. Chores like: raking, mowing, taking out the trash, cleaning the dishes, getting the table prepared for dinner, cleaning his room, putting the laundry into the laundry machine, sweeping the tile floors and vacuuming the carpeted floors. There was more than he had time for. By the time he finished, his mother told him to make dinner because she was too tired to. He walked into the kitchen tired and sighed. His mother heard the sigh and yelled “If you are going to have an attitude you get to make it and not eat it. You will have to go straight to bed. Is that what you are wanting?” “No, Ma’am” Tommy responded.

He heard his dad come home and slammed the door. Two seconds later Tommy’s little brother was standing next to him and his eyes watering a bit. “I know I don’t like their fights either” Tommy whispered. He could already hear the fight start up. His mother was asking why Father was home late and he accused her of being a spy. “Where’s dinner” his dad demanded. “I didn’t make any” She responded back. This blew them up into a bigger fight. His dad came storming into the room. Looked at Tommy who was making dinner and then at joshy who was standing next to him. “What are you making?” he asked. “Hotdogs and macaroni and cheese” Tommy responded carefully. His dad grunted and walked out of the room. Joshy clinged to Tommy’s side for the rest of the night.

Another sleepless night he thought as he looked at the clock. 2 am it read. He sighed looked over to see if Joshy was still next to him. He was. Well I guess I should try getting some school work done since I didn’t get to after dinner. The onetime joshy didn’t cling on to him was when he was out chopping wood for their fire place. That was when their dad came and got joshy saying he should not be around the dangerous items. As soon as Tommy had gotten done with the wood cutting it was bed time. He had heard a knock at the door not more then ten minutes later and let his little brother in. As he sat there doing homework he noticed joshy was read around his arms and it looked as if there was another bruise this time on his right leg. He examined it as joshy slept. Shrugged it off, kids get hurt all the time he thought and then went back to homework.

Not more then five minutes later he had a painful realization. He remembered joshy’s watered eyes as soon as their dad got there and how he clung to him as much as he could. He then remembered how he had gotten hit as a child but thought it was because he was a bad kid. But joshy doesn’t do anything wrong. The sharp pain came into his chest again. He tried to gasp for air but it only hurt him worse. He held his breath and waited a few seconds later it was gone. The stress was hurting him and he couldn’t take much more of it. We have to get out of here. He thought But how?

Tommys Goal: To get his brother and him out of the situation they are now in.
Ok so he hasn't figured out how to handle his stress. Instead it looks like more stress is happening. What do you think Tommy should do? Write a comment saying what you would do.
As far as finding out what happens well we know we must wait till tomorrow. I will see you all then.

Have a blessed day

~Hugs Keyria~


You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:7-8)

Tommy's Story

So what do you do when not everyone can use the same advice you did for overcoming stress to get a goal done? Each person is different in how they stress, why they stress, and what solutions should be taken to cure stress.

Tommy came up to Phillip to ask him a question. Phillip had learned to cope with stress and he wanted to know how he did it. They talked for a bit before Tommy asked “Phillip you have parents that helped you out. What if your parents don’t help you. I mean what if all they do is fight and bicker all day long. They would rather do that then deal with your problems?” Tommy could tell Phillip was taken aback by this. His parents did love him and didn’t fight. Tommy wondered what that must have been like.

You See, Tommy was failing his classes just like Phillip was doing. Only, Tommy had other problems to follow, different ones then Phillip. Tommy came from a broken family. He had an older sister and a younger brother. He was always protecting his younger brother and his older sister was always picking on him.

His parents were always fighting and screaming. It was hard for him to concentrate and his younger brother always wanted to be near him. He knew it was for safety but he hardly had a time to be alone, let alone a time to be quiet. His parents always made him do the chores in the house. His sister would go off do whatever she wanted as she yelled back at her parents. His mother blamed their daughters attitude on the father and the Father would just get up and leave. Tommy learned that he was the one that everyone took things out on. Whenever there was a fight and Tommy was near be got the brunt of things. He had to take care of it, as well as whatever else that was needed.

I am a Cinderella …er Cinderfella he wrote in his journal. I am tired of all this mess. I am tired of the fights, sleepless nights, the attitudes, the tears, the throwing things, the cleaning things. One of these days I am going to go far away from here and never come back. His younger brother walked into the room with a tear down his face. “Come on over” he said. His younger brother sat down next to him saying “My ears are hurting” Tommy reached over and hugged his little brother as he listened to his parents bicker about money. One of these days he thought.

At school things were only worse. His parents had so many teacher parent conferences about their kids grades that they would call them stupid, dumb. The teachers were getting upset that they were not getting passing grades and some of the kids would avoid going near well him. Why does my life have to be like this? He thought as he walked to school one day. He had his little brother hanging on to his every move. He feared of becoming angry like his parents, he feared of hurting his children like they did with him and his siblings. He feared of not being able to get money to leave.

I have to find a way to get money, so that I and my brother can leave here. I need to find away to get out of this mess. I can’t keep having headaches all the time. And Joshy (little brother) needs to see the doctor. Why can’t they become parents? Why can’t they take responsibility? Tommy felt his chest tighten and a hard pain ran through it. He stopped breathing for a second as he grabbed his chest. A few moments later the pain and left. His little brother watched with a scared look on his face “Tommy are you ok?” all Tommy could do was just nod.

What a scary moment!!! Can you imagine having pain going through you? Or having to protect your little brother all the time? Can you imagine having to hear your parents fight all the time or the thought of running away? For some this is all too familiar. There are many things going on in Tommy’s life. I wonder how he is going to handle the stress he has.

Well to find out lets come back tomorrow and see

~Hugs Keyria~

So do not fear for I am with you, Do not tremble for I am the Lord. I will strengthen you and keep you safe and protected. Isaiah 41:10

Phillip's Story conclusion

“Wow These look like the stressors!” Phillip said as he sat down next to his parents. Phillip felt overwhelmed after seeing all his stressors and decided to go ask for help to overcome the stressors and achieve his goals. He figured who best to ask other then his parents. He was sure they would have some great ideas and could help him not to feel so burdened with all his stress and he was right!

Look at what they came up with:

“I am sure there are more I need to write down but these are the main ones I can think of. Me and my parents sat down and found solutions to go along with my goals. This was to cut the stress out of the picture.”

Goals And Solutions

Catch- up work- I have three breaks at school, two breaks and a lunch. The two breaks I will be in the school library playing catch up. (lunch is with Dawn sigh) I will do catch up also 1 hour before bed time. (bed time no later than 11pm)

Balancing foot ball and games- This is going to be the same time as always from 3:30 to 5:30 during down play I will catch up on work

Hang time with friends- Parents and I discussed it supper is now going to be with friends unless I want to come home for supper. This is only allowed until I am fully caught up that this way I don’t have to worry about catching supper at home. How cool is that?

Hang time with Dawn -So from 5:30 to 7:00 it is hanging out with friends and Dawn. I am also having lunch with her at school. Once caught up I will be allowed to be out later and can take her on more dates.

Study – Starts at 7pm sharp and I must study the subject that I will be testing on the next day. To make sure I am paying attention to studing my father is going to study it with me asking questions. This will make my studing not so boring lol.

Unpacking- Father is moving all my boxes into my room closet so all I have to do is unpack. Mother has decided that they are all going into the closet until school is over. Once school is over then I will be allowed to unpack. yay! No nagging to unpack (oh sorry mom) lol.

Phone calls and house warming: If it is a phone call I am allowed only 30 minutes to talk this is so I don’t get stressed from loosing time on catch-up. Later that time will go back to be unlimited (during the summer when there is no school more likely). As far as people coming over to the house I am allowed to talk for 15-30 minutes then I must excuse myself and go start on my school work. Mother said she is going to try and have less people over so I wont be distracted. She said she may even have them come over earlier before I get there.

Fatigue: Father has postpone my working at the factory until I am all caught up. I did like working at the factory but I am glad I am getting more sleep.

Regular homework from the day before- this is to be done right after study time with father and right before catch-up time.

Phillip started his new goals. At first he struggled cause he wanted to hang out more with friends and trying to get his mind to switch from goofing off to studing was a bit harder. But then things started to change. Dawn at lunch time would help him study for tests. His friends would quiz him on tests or they would all work on thier homework together during supper. His grades improved so much that his parents told him they would throw a pizza party for him and his friends. His energy came back and he was less fatigued. In fact he had a better attitude and didnt look at stress as something that could over come him. Instead he looked at it like it was a piece of dirt that could quickly be dusted away with one swipe. Before the school year was over he had time to start up the factory again and to unpack a small bit. He was not sick or sore anymore and was excited to find out he would NOT be going to homeschool.

Amazing enough is that when we look at our goals we notice that we try and get it done ourselves. We focus on the wrong things and never get it done. Phillip did something that I think we all should do. Not only did he make the list but he went to others for help. He got advice.

Phillip was talking to his friend Tommy one day when Tommy said something that made Phillip think. "Phillip you have parents that helped you out. What if your parents only biker and fight and they dont even want to deal with you and your problems?' Phillip was taken back by this. He did have parents that didn't fight and they loved him very much.

So what do you do when not everyone can use the same advice you did for overcoming stress to get a goal done? Each person is different in how they stress, why they stress, and what solutions should be taken to cure stress.

Tommy, was failing his classes just like Phillip. Only Tommy had other problems to follow. Tommy came from a broken family. He had a older sister and a yonger brother. He was always protecting his younger brother and his older sister was always picking on him. He would often hage himself and.......

Guess what my ink ran out lol so I have to finish this story tomorrow :) Come back then to see Tommys story.

(If you like what you are reading or maybe you have something you want me to add or write about send me an email. let me know what your thinking. I look forward to hearing from you)

~Hugs Keyria~


I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)

Phillps story continued

"For sure I will study today." Phillip went to the library to start and see if he could study but his mind kept wondering off. “Phillip right?” asked brown eyed brunette hair girl. He nodded “Hi I am dawn.” She sat down and they talked through his study time. That was all it took. He really liked her and each time he had free time instead of working on his catch-up he would hang out with her.

For the next few weeks thing kept preventing him from getting his school work done, and the teachers kept adding more work. It kept adding up. There was extra football practices, and the start of games, there was outings with the guys, outings with Dawn (his now girlfriend), There was chores around the house and still had to finish unpacking. Plus his old friends kept calling, and people kept visiting to check out the new home. It was like a house warming every day.
Phillip was getting sick a lot and his body was sore. He was getting lack of sleep due to trying to play catch-up at night which caused him to feel fatigued. Yet he kept pushing himself to keep going. On the day of his first test he was not prepared. He had stayed up all night trying to study but his thoughts were on everything other then what they should have been. Needless to say he failed the first of three tests miserably. The first football game he was so tired he lacked the energy he needed and was not helping the team much. “Where is our team member from practice!!!” the coach yelled at him. He could feel the other players upset with him. Some were trying to figure him out. “This is not you. What is going on?” a few of his members asked him. He just shrugged and went home.

When the principle called his parents and him in the office the next day, he knew he was in trouble. The principle asked if there were problems going on and what the school could do to help. Phillip embarrassed just sat in quiet as the principle and his parents continued to talk back in forth. “Look we just want to make sure that he is going to be able to finish this school year. Right now we are afraid he is not going to pass and may be held back a grade.” Phillip perked up “No!” he said loudly. “Maybe we should have him just finish this year at home and if he isn’t doing better keep him in home school until he is.” His mother said to his dad. “Please No, Mom. Come on Dad you know I can do this. No, I want to be here.” “Well then son, we need to see a big change. You need to be able to finish the goals on your list before goofing off. You said you have been feeling stressed lately right?” His dad asked. Phillip nodded. “Well that comes from you. Had you actually studied, and did the work during the times you were supposed to you would not have to feel so overwhelmed.” After phllip begged saying he would not mess up this time and they would see that big change they talked it out and decided he could finish out this year.” You are getting two days suspension to play catch-up on your work, The principle is being ever kind. That means, no hanging out with friends when they call, No television, no nothing but work.” His dad said as they went to the car. “If your grades are still slipping after you are back in school you will be pulled and put into home studies” his mother pitched in. Phillip nodded.

This was going to be a challenge for him.

How do you think he did? How do you think he coped with stress? What do you suppose he could do to change the situation? What would be your first move?

As soon as Phillip got home he took out a piece of paper and started to write all the problems he was having and the stress he had felt from day one and all his goals he needed to do.

Let’s review he thought


Stresses and how I felt

Starting a new school – Stressful. Because you never know how it will be. Good experiences or bad.
Meeting new friends– Stressful at first. I was nervous but luckily this was changed quickly. I think joining the team helped that
Introducing myself- why do all schools have to do this? Why not the other way around. Where they introduce to the new person. Oh well once it was over with I was fine.
Catch-up work- This is the most stressful. There is so much I had to catch-up. Course had I actually worked on it like I was supposed to I would have been done with it. Well now this is one that I still need to do so this can now be placed under my goals list
Time to balance football practices, and games in – I want to play football but How can I do my work and do football at the same time? I feel torn and stressed. Well I need to move this to goals side that way I can figure out how to fix this
Hang time with friends- I like my friends and I don’t want them to think I am ignoring them when they ask to hang out. When can I have time to go hang out with friends that wont interfere with catch-up work.
Time to spend with Dawn- Favorite time. She makes me laugh. I can’t believe she is in my life. I don’t want to lose her or my time with her. Determined is how I feel with her.
Study time- I usually feel bored with this one. I try to push it off. I cant figure out the point of sitting and rereading the chapters to memorize what is going on. This is slightly different then catch-up cause I am more focused one one subject at hand.
Unpacking- tired of being nagged to have everything in its spot when I have other things that I am to worry about. Enough said.
Phone calls from friends and house warming- excited, Tired, unsure. I feel like I have to entertain when others are over. And I want to tell my friends on the phone everything but it is hard to set a time limit to it.
Fatigue- Lack of sleep. I am always trying to get homework done, catch-up work and then on top of it my mind wonders to other things such as football games, hanging with friends and of course Dawn.

Ok so now I have the review of what my stressors are. Phillip thought. But what should I do next?

To find out come back tomorrow :)

~Hugs Keyria~


You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:7-8)

Phillip's Goals and Stress Story

Phillip went to school prepared to face the day. "I can do this." he thought. As he entered the school building, he saw students running around everywhere. He got out his paper that showed him which class to go to first. His hands were a bit shaky but he took a deep breath and let it out slowly telling himself he was going to be ok. He had worried about meeting friends since it was the middle of a school year and most students would have already been settled in with their friends. You see, Phillip was new to the school. His family had just moved into town and was not to sure what to expect. Down the hallway was his first class. He straightened his backpack on his shoulder and headed for it. As he walked in he could feel some of the students staring. Others didn’t care and kept talking. “Class, Settle down. Take your seats” The teacher called. It was good to have familiar rules at each school. Everyone sat and he headed for the seat that didn’t have anyone in it. The teacher saw him and called him back to the front. This was a familiar thing too but not one he enjoyed.

“Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you.” the teacher said. phillip placed his backpack down and went to the front and told the class a little about himself and where he was before. This continued in each of his classes always the same thing going to the front reintroducing himself to some of the students and others introducing himself. He was not one for giving speeches and used he would shake but he was getting familiar with the patterns of each school.
"Ha, well if I didnt know who I was before I am sure I do now. Having to repeat my life how many times?" he wondered iin his head.

During a break he wondered what it would be like if the class was the one that introduced instead of him. A few guys came over and talked to him that were from the football team. He tossed a ball around with them for a bit before break was over and decided to try out later for the team. However he started to realize his catch-up work was adding up. Even though he had a couple of weeks to play catch-up , he had a lot to do. He was not sure he could handle doing football on top of catching up but he didn’t want to miss out on making friends. So after school he headed into the field putting aside his work.

On the field he had a blast and met a few more good guys. They invited him out to get a bite to eat. Surely that couldn’t hurt he thought. By the time he got home it was 7:30pm his parents were upset because he hadn’t called and he got a talking to for that. He went upstairs to start on his work when he mother yelled for him to come down and get some boxes out of the car and take them to his room. They were still moving stuff in. He ran down and took each box (there was five of them in total) into his room. “Don’t forget to unpack and hang your clothes up tonight.” His mother yelled up to him. “I don’t want to go in there and see it not done. “ He sighed and quickly unpacked his clothes. “Are you hungry? Supper is a bit cold you can reheat it. We didn’t know you were not going to come home until later so we made an early supper. It is in the microwave if you want it.” His mother called up again. “K, Thanks mom” Phillip sighed and pulled his history assignments. He had over five report papers to do, end of the chapter reviews and he would be doing test catch-ups in the next few weeks. So he needed to study. “Son, don’t stay up late. We have to get up early and drive by the store to help Dan.” His father said.
Phillip had forgotten about that. He was supposed to go to a warehouse at five am and help unload truck before school. He looked at the clock it was now 9:30. "Where did the time go? he questioned already knowing the answer. " "In fact if you are not going to eat you should go to bed now.” His dad yelled up at him. “How was your day?”

Phillip sighed again. I can’t study and think while answering all these questions and sleep all at the same time. “It was fine. I am really tired I think I am going to study for a small bit then go to bed” He called down to his parents. “You didn’t study earlier???” his mother questioned. “No, mom I joined the football team” he could hear his father say to his mother “That is my boy” then his father yelled up. “I am proud of you son. You know what you want and you go for it.” He knew the speech that would come next about how when he was younger and in the football teams. So he stopped his father by yelling back. “Night Dad! Night Mom! I will see you bright and early in the morning."

He started to write one of the history papers. He wrote and wrote not paying attention to the time. By the time he was finished with his first draft he looked at the time. 11:30pm. I should go to bed he thought but I think I will just go ahead and do one chapter review in the history book. That one chapter turned into three chapters. He still had quite a few to go but at least those were finished. He was going to lie down and sleep when he looked at the time. 2:00 am. I won’t be able to get up if I sleep now so instead he started another history report. At 4:00 he took a shower to try and help him stay up and 4:15 he was dressed and ready to go. I will take a nap later today he thought. He was a bit proud that he accomplished what he had done in his history work yet he was very tired. He worked at the warehosuse until it was time for school. Then he started another day in school. Almost every teacher assigned another report paper which just added to all the other ones he needed to do. He was having a hard time focusing because of being so tired. He kept yawning and he felt slightly embarrassed when he seen a girl was watching him. During break he leaned against a tree to close his eyes a bit but that was soon interrupted by his new friends telling him to go with them to toss the ball around. At first he said no but they talked him into it. So off he went to play ball. He couldn’t wait for school to be over so he could go home and nap. As he was dreaming of how lovely that nap would feel, he closed his eyes and sat in his last class dreaming and litterly jumped when the bell sounded. He grabbed his stuff and bolted for the door. As Phillip was about to leave his friends called him. “Where are you going?” “Home” He replied as he was almost to the pavement outside. “Football practice!” They reminded him. He debated on saying he could not make it but he knew that you really cant miss any practices or the coach would be upset and think you are not in it to win. Off he trudged to the field with his new friends.

“You ok?” His dad asked as he got home later that afternoon.” Yeah I am just a bit tired. Hey I think I am going to take a nap can you wake me in a hour and a half?” His father smiled and nodded. He went up stairs to his room. And laid down. Two minutes later his mother knockson his door and walks in with a pile of clothes that just went through the washer.” I need you to go take out the trash. How was your day. You look ill are you ok?” “Yes I am ok, I am just tired. Can I take the trash out a bit later?” At first his mother was going to protest but then she looked at him and felt his forehead as if he was sick. “Sure” she walked out of the room. At last peace and quiet he thought. But that was cut short for not more then a second after he laid down and closed his eyes when he heard his mother yelling “Phillip the phone it is for you.” He went out and answered the phone. "Hello?.....Oh Hey!!! It is so good to hear from you..." It was his friend from the town before this one. He talked to him telling him about the new school, all the work he still had to do and about the team and people he met. He got off the phone and it was supper time. After supper he went up stairs and said I am only going to take a thirty minute nap he thought setting his alarm clock. As he fell asleep he started dreaming about being late, to work, late turn in home work, late to getting to football practice, late to getting home.” He woke in a panic and looked at the time. 6:07 am. He had slept the night away.

Can you see what his goals were? Can you see if he was stressing? How can you tell?

His Goals:

Meet new friends - He did this and proceeded to keep up with it by joining the football team
Catch-up homework- We can see him start to try this. He pulled a all nighter to try and get as much don as possible
Unpack- maybe not his highest priority but his mother is not going to let him slack on this goal
Study- of course he hasnt had much time to study other then doing catch-up. Even at that he hast tests coming up in the next few weeks.

Stresses:

Starting a new school
Meeting new friends
Introducing himself in front of others
Catch-up work and new work added
Time to balance football and catchup work together.

How would you feel in this situation? Would you change something differently?

Well this is not the end of phillips story. Nope this is only the beginning so come back tomorrow to see if he finishes his goals or if he lets stress take over and if that is the case what he may do to cope with it.

See you then

~Hugs Keyria~


For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29: 11-

Stress, Goals & Dust Bunnies....What a Combination

Phew!
All the dust bunnies are washed and clean. That was a task. All that havoc they made.

I wont lie at first I became stressed out! I didn’t know if I could handle it. But luckily I was able to round them all up and wash them from dust to dust and make the rust turn into shine. Of course I had some help from friends. How did I cope with the stress doing the job? Well....It wasn't easy that is for sure.

From right to left and left to right,
I raced and caught with all my might.
Sweat poured down my face and I bit my lip
As some of the bunnies gave me a slip.
I twisted and lifted and pulled and yank
The soda bottle I was prying open made me sit with a sank.
Oh the bunnies that is right that is what I was to do.
Catch each one saying "stop that!” and “You are through!"
Of course the laughed and I was stressed out.
My clothes were all dusty, laundry time where is the "Shout"
Back to the bunnies who were here and there
"Dust be gone" I say to all everywhere
Of course they don’t listen but wiggle in glee
A knock at the door... “Now who can that be?”
I look horrid but didn’t care
For I seen a mop and bucket just standing there.
I let them in, with water to drink.
I poured into bucket it came from the sink.
Off they went to my surprise
Catching bunnies and a few house flies.
Relax they said as I calmed down
For soon all the dust bunnies, now washed, headed out of town

How did you do with the challenge I gave you? Did you write down when you found a stress? How it felt? What you were doing?

This is the start of how we cope with stress when doing a job. For when you know the basis of when and how and where the stress may come then you can start to find solutions on how to over come stress. This helps getting stress to be broken down so we can do the job, task and goal at hand.

Stress! The common illness that affect s millions of people, animals and rocks…yes rocks …..ok well maybe not rocks but it affects living life. So how can we cure it?

Each person is different in how they stress, why they stress and what solutions should be taken to cure the stress.

Let’s break stress down a little deeper. We learned that stress is a negative strain on a person. Stress can happen by being mental, emotional, or physical and that it is caused by many reasons. Stress is everywhere. Its over there, over here, up there and around there. Most say you can’t avoid running into it. Well you may not avoid running into it but you can cope with it.

Hmm maybe it would be better to break it down and to understand by viewing a life of someone and that someone is Phillip! Phillip is a student at a new school....well you all know new schools, let alone any school, can be very stressful.

So be prepared to hear Phillips story tomorrow!

Until then have a wonderful day!!

~Hugs Keyria~

I can do anything through Christ Whom gives me strength~ Phillipians 4:13

The Stress Challenge: Instructions Final (Day 5)

It's Here! It is finally here!

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!" ~Dr. Suess

So are you ready for your last questions? Well lets make sure you wrote down the others first. They are:

What Symptom did you encountered?
What you were doing before it happened?
What time it was when it occurred?
How long did it last?
How did you feel before, during and after the encounter?

The last question is simple but needs to be asked.

What is the date?
Can you guess why this is important? Well this question is similar to the How long does the symptom last answer. By writing down the dates you can see how many days you have this feeling. This lets you see how often stress can control your life. Some people stress every day.

(Note: If you do stress every single day and have high, heavy symptoms dont wait for it to go away go see a doctor. Explain all the symptoms you are having and the length that they have been goin on for. Stress can be as serious as any other desease out there if not more serious. Stess does lead to death)

Can you imagine if you stressed everyday for one month. How well do you think your overall health would be? It would not be in tip top shape. Instead it could be so out of shape that it is affecting not only you but others around you. Remember to relax, breathe and wait patiently for symptoms to go away. If the symptom persists go to the doctors as soon as possibe!

There are so many symptoms stress causes, some being a life taker.

Ok now you have all the questions and you know what to look for each day. So grab those papers and pens and get to it. Start today!!! Find out how many symptoms you have and if you can Identify the main source.

Questions:
What Symptom did you encountered?
What you were doing before it happened?
What time it was when it occurred?
How long did it last?
How did you feel before, during and after the encounter?
What is the date?


So how do we cope with stress when we are trying to do our jobs?

Starts tomorrows. See you then

Hugs and Smiles

~Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

The Stress Challenge: Instructions (Day 4)

Can you remember the four questions so far? If you said:
Do you sing in the shower? Do you like banna pudding sandwhiches? Is the sky really a dinosaur? and Can you sing while doing a headsand?
Then you may want to go read or reread the past blogs.

However if you said:
Can a carrot dance and sing at the same time.
Then you still need to go reread lol.

The four questions are:

What Symptom did you encountered?
What you were doing before it happened?
What time it was when it occurred?
How long did it last?

Did you get to notice how long a symptom lasted? If so did you realize if it was an actue or a chronic stress?

The next question Has to do with the feelings between you and your stress.

How did you feel before, during and after the encounter?
This is a question to get you aware of your body, emotions and your surroundings.

Take Josh for instant. Josh is a college student in his dorm studying for a final. It is quiet and he is learning a lot. In walks his roommate Jordan. Jordan goes grabs his guitar and starts to play it. At first Josh is a little frustrated because he wants to study and his friend is making noise but then after a while the music drowns away, until that moment when Jordan begins to sing. Josh turns gives Jordan a look to say stop, then goes back to studying. Jordan at this moment smiles and goes to the radio turns it on really loud to be a pain.

Josh turns around now with a higher stress level and more agitated then before. His mind is racing thinking how is he going to study with all this noise and his heart is pounding from his emotions rising. “Will you PLEASE be quieter?” He asks then turns back to his studying. Jordan turns off the radio and sighs heavily waiting for Josh to respond. Josh instead keeps focusing on his studying. So Jordan again sighs heavily. This time he sighs adding a ‘Ho Ho HUM” to the end of it. Josh still ignores his friend as much as he can. By this point josh is not only annoyed but overwhelmed with all the negative thoughts in his head. He is feeling rushed, angry, annoyed, and stressed.

“Hey, you want to hear a joke?” Jordan said “No.:” Josh replies firmly. “Ok, what has three legs, is green, sings with a lisp and eats only pickles?” No response. “do you know?” Jordan persists. Josh says nothing. “Yoo hoo you alive over there?” Still no response. Suddenly the door opens and there is Tristen his other roommate. “You guys will not believe what happened to me today” Josh gets up slams his book shut. Grabs his pencil and notebook, pushes past his roommates and leaves the room. Now with the highest anger he could have. “what’s gotten into him?” Tristen asked? Jordan shrugged.

“Ugggggh. How dare they, cant they see I am studing?” Says Josh to himself as he is walking down the hall towards the library. All the sudden a sharp pain comes upon Josh. He stops. He starts to not be able to breathe. “This is not good” He thinks. “Slow breathing , In and out, in and out” He tells himself. He slowly moves out of the isle to the wall where he leans gently against it. The pain slowly releases. He starts to think about how embarrassed he was. Why did I get so mad? They weren’t trying to be mean to me they were just being their normal selves. As the pain releases he starts to feel relief, a calmness. He then realizes it was his chest that was hurting.

It is a good thing to notice how you are doing throughout each situations. Without knowing you can actually hurt yourself. If you notice you are aware of how you are feeling mentally and phsyically. Well lets break down Josh's feelings

Before:
Josh was studing quietly. So he was on low stress. He may had a small bit of stress since he was studying but it was very low.
This is where things get interesting
Josh’s temper started to rise and caused his heart to pump faster. He became annoyed, upset and angry. He was letting stress take over him.

During:
Soon he was at the peak of anger. Josh's heart was beating so very fast that it caused him to have chest pains and not be able to breathe. The pain was so strong that it made him not be able to focus on where it was on him but instead on the fact that it was there. So he focused on his breathing.

After:
Josh started to calm himself down focusing on breathing he realized the feeling of pain was coming from the chest. He felt relieve as the pain disapeared. He felt embarressed.

Overall: He realized that all this was caused by his actions. Over all he felt anger to calm: a range of opposite emotions. All because of one word: STRESS

Only one question left and that is for tommorow: So make sure you keep your notebooks and pencils ready.

Hugs and Smiles

~Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

The Stress Challenge: Instructions (Day 3)

Ok so now you know three of the six questions:

What Symptom did you encountered?
What you were doing before it happened?
What time it was when it occurre?

What other questions can there be? Well here is the next Question:

How long did it last? Why do we need to know this question? Because we need to find out what kind of stress you are having. If it only last a short time then there may be a quick fix but if it last for quite some time. Then there may be a need for a concern.

Did you know there are two types of stress?

Acute stress- which is a quick response to the situation that your body does. This could raise your blood pressure or cause your heart to be rapid. Luckly, you recover from this stress quickly most of the time without hardly any harm. That is due to your body’s response to the intensity of the stress, the actions taken to calm down the stress and get rid of it all together.

However, sometimes if you do not react cautiously this can cause a heart attack or other symptoms. So it is still a concern.

Chromic stress- is a long term stress on the body. This is a condition that could last for a life time and cause you to have difficulties in your daily routines, in your work life and in your home life. This can make any preexisting problem of health that you have to become a bigger problem.
With knowing which one of these is causing the problem we cannot find out how to fix it.

If a doctor did not know if a person was having a heart attack or a chronic back pain then how would a doctor treat the symptoms. It would not be wise to give heart attack medications to a person having chronic back pain, nor would it be wise to give chronic back pain medications to the person with the heart attack. For those are two separate medications for two separate health Conditions.

In the same way we need to know the length of your stress symptom. That way we we can look for the right treatment for the right length of the problem

Ok go take a break for a bit. See how long a symptom is that you may have had or may have today, or maybe a friend had one. See if you noticed the length of the stress. Then come back tomorrow for the next question.

Hugs and Smiles

~Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

The Stress Challenge: Instructions (Day 2)

Yesterday you got the first two questions:
What Symptoms did you encountered? and What were you were doing before it happened?

Are you Ready for the next question?

What time it was when it occurred:
Why would we need to know the time? This seems like an odd question right? Well actually the time that it happens could be a reason for the symptom. The best way to describe this is by looking at allergies. Some have them in the morning others at night. They are consistent to happen during the same time. This is the same as some symptoms.

Sonya was always a very perky person. But during 2pm each day during her History class she would get terrible headaches. These would make it hard to concentrate to the class. She begin to stress major and soon she was failing the class. She didn’t understand. History was her favorite subject yet here she was unable to do the in class assignments and more importantly the tests. However, her homework was always A’s. How can this happen she wondered?

One day the teacher called Sonya to class early to discuss what was going on. She explained that each time she came into the class she would get a headache and not be able to concentrate. She explained that she was stressing a lot and she didn’t understand why this was happening since she loved history. Sonya and the teacher went through options of what it could be that was causing the headaches. They checked the lights but they were the same as in each of the rooms. They checked to see if where she was sitting was causing her to be too far back to where she couldn’t see the board or hear the teacher very well but she was fine with her spot able to read perfectly and understand every word the teacher said. They figured they would find a way for her to catch up later after class, for it was five minutes to start.

Sonya went and sat down as the teacher pulled out a spray can. She started to spray around the room this air freshener and then placed the bottle back into her drawer. Within a few minutes Sonya started to feel her head begin to hurt. Within ten minutes her headache was strong. She suddenly thought could it be the air freshener? She asked the teacher if they can open the windows a small bit cause she thinks she understands why she was getting her headaches. As the time went on Sonya’s headache started to release and she was able to comprehend more. The fresh air was helping break up the air freshener.

It turns out every day her teacher would spray before the kids got there for a pleasant smelling class. Without realizing it that spray was causing Sonya’s headaches. The headaches were causing her to not be able to concentrate very well in class. Without that concentration she was failing which then lead ultimately to Sonya’s stress.

Not such an odd question when we realize that time does make an importance to situations.

Are you ready for question four? Yep you guessed it that will be for tomorrow. So keep those pens and papers handy.

Hugs and Smiles
~Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

The Stress Challenge: Instructions (Day 1)

Wow! Look at all those things on your list! And all of those whether a lot or a little are from stress.
Ok so we have our list and some have a major cause of stress, so what is the next step?

Next step will help you identify your major cause of stress if you don’t know what it is. This step takes a lot of work to stay ALERT and FOCUSED. You will need a notebook and pen on you at ALL TIMES.

Stress Challenge: Starting on Friday, Try keeping a notebook on you for one month writing in it each time you have a symptom of stress. Make sure you answer all the questions I will be giving you in the next few days.

Every time you encounter a symptom I want you answer 6 questions. The first two are:

What Symptom did you encountered:

What you were doing before it happened:

So how does this help?
For one thing most of us do not really focus on what is going on with us. Some of us however are overly aware. Either way this will help us pin point the problem or problems high point of stress. That way later we can look for the solutions.

So why then each one of those questions?
Just like a doctor needs to have all the facts so that he/she can check all the possibilities and find the right cure we must do the same. Imagine going to the doctor and leaving out how many days it happened, or how long it lasted. They may think that this is just a once in a blue moon thing and it is not to be worried about. When in reality this is happening everyday and needs to be checked.

First: What symptom did you encounter?
This question is straight forward and to the point. Did you encounter a racing heart? What about a rash? What about shortness of breath or dizziness? These are things that are very important to know. Write down all symptoms that apply.

Second: What you were doing before it happened:
This question is to find out if maybe it is a certain similarity that may be causing it. Maybe you do a lot of lifting and this is putting stress on your body. Or maybe you are watching a movie that has got you so wrapped in it that you fear as if you were the character in the show. Or maybe you are doing something that is racing your adrenalin. These are all things to be aware of. This is so that if you have the same symptom during the same activities then you learn that maybe that activity is not one that you should be doing or maybe you are doing it wrong. You may want to tone it down.

If you go to the gym and you exercise but you start to get dizzy and short of breath you don’t keep going. Instead you slow down or take a break. This is the same with finding out that it may be an activity, Try slowing it down, taking a break or doing a different activity that is similar but stress free.

So what is the next question I need to write down?

You dont have to be curious for long that will be answered tomorrow. So have your pens and paper prepared.

Hugs and Smiles
~Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

Steps for Stress

So did you figure out what which stress problem happened?

Well unfortunately it wasn’t just one!

His shoulder started to give him discomfort and pain. Then He started to have headache and diarrhea . His lack of sleep came from his negative thoughts of feeling insecure, not being able to do the job, self-doubt feeling low self-worth. He started to feel the anxiety hit and became frustrated when he was not able to comprehend things like before. He was feeling overwhelmed , worried and began to have a speech problem. Then came the tensing after forgetting things he knew. But he really struggled with stress after seeing a skin irritation (stress rash) on his hands and he seemed to be going slower at work. So to him his efficiency at work was lacking the normal energy he once had.

That is quite a bit if you really look at all the problems he was having. Yet he didn’t realize he was having problems he just blamed everything on himself and not realizing that he was having heavy symptoms of STRESS. No one really sees all of what is going on until they take time to focus on each problem.

So let’s see if we can help cure this. As I said yesterday, people will turn to things to help them cope with stress. They push the stress aside and focus on their new project in front of them. Not all of these things will help in fact all it does is shield the problem. It is like throwing a blanket over the mess around your room. The mess is still there but now you can’t see it because you are focusing on the blanket. Or we push all the mess to one side of the room. What will this accomplish? If we stress but cover it up we just create more stress. This becomes a bigger problem.

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken” ~ Lloyd Cory

I love that quote. It puts things into perspective. We may not want to deal with our stress so we push it aside thinking it will go away. But until we face the stress, face that mess we placed along the side of the room or under that blanket and remove it piece by piece. It will never go away but keep consuming us.

To get stress out of our lives so we can focus on our goals we must do some actions similar to actions being done for our goals. This is all a step by step process. Just like picking up that mess piece by piece. To make sure that you do get rid of it.

We start by identifying why you are stressing. What is the major cause of it? It could be your Job, Finances, Relationship etc.

Did you find your major cause of stress? Sometimes this is not easy. Only because sometimes we don’t realize we are stressing. So that is when step two and three come into play. This is how the ones who may not know what their major cause is can figure it out.

Just like with goals, Make a list. This is a list of your symptoms.

So your goal for today is to go right down your major cause of stress if you know what it is if not, then just list all the symptoms of stress you have encountered while trying to get a goal done.

Tomorrow we are going to find out what to do with that list.

Until then have a great day

~“Hugs” Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6
You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13

S.T.R.E.S.S. Is not for Goals

STRESS…ewww another yucky word.

What exactly is Stress?
Stress when looked up is: A cause of strain that is felt by a person whether be emotional, Physical, or Mental. Or as I call it “Surviving The Real Emotions Surrounding Someone.”

Why do we dislike this word?
This word is not just a word but a word with conditions applied to it.

What does that mean?
It means Stress can cause a disturbing affect. Stress can cause many symptoms. Each symptom can be at different levels. Some of these are:

• Headaches (migraines at times)
• Digestive problems
• Soreness all over, muscle tension
• Back/chest pain (almost any pain anywhere)
• Autoimmune disease, Decreased immunity (easy to catch colds, infections and allergies)
• Feel insecure, low self esteem
• Breakdowns, feeling of not being able to cope
• Confusion, hard to make decisions, lack of concentration, trouble understanding or learning new information, hard to communicate
• Memory problems, forgetfulness, unclear
• Lack of humor
• Racing or pounding heart
• Shortness of breath and holding your breath
• Dry mouth, hard to swallow, thirst
• Tightness all over, tense, jaw clenching
• Over react to small things
• Increased minor accidents
• Obsessive or compulsive behavior
• Lack of work productivity and efficiency
• Overly defensive or suspicious
• Lack of interest
• Self Doubt, Low self-esteem
• Overall Change
• Phobias, jumpy, feeling wired • Depression, Sadness, Crying (which can lead to overeating, Obesity and sometimes under eating and/or suicidal thoughts)
• Raised blood pressure
• Skin conditions, rashes, irritations
• Heart Disease and/or heart Palpitations
• Upset stomach, heart burn and Nausea, vomiting
• Sleep problems, Restlessness, insomnia, nightmares
• Worry, racing thoughts
• Anxiety and Panic Attack
• Irritable, anger, outbursts, fustration
• Feeling overwhelmed and/or overloaded
• Negative thoughts and negative self talk, (leads to suicidal thoughts)
• Feeling loneliness or worthlessness
• Mood swings, feeling out of control, fear, guilt, denial, emotional shock
• Lack of energy, lack of motivation
• Sweaty palms, Sweating for no reason
• Butterflies in stomach, Nervousness (which can lead to fidgeting, foot tapping, stuttering, shaking, rapid or mumbled speech or other behaviors)
• Horrid Bowl movement problems like diarrhea, constipation or frequent urination)
• Tired, fatigued, weak, dizzy, light headed

Some will start up addictions to try to overcome stress by using activities to calm themselves or putting their focus on something else. These can include but are not limited to

• Drug use
• Smoking or increased smoking
• Social withdrawal/ isolation
• Physical or mental abuse against yourself
• Use of over the counter drugs
• Controlling
• Gossiping
• Taking up a sport
• Cleaning
• Excessive Exercise
• Blaming others, overly suspicious • Under eating (as mentioned above
• Alcoholic use
• Crying spells
• Over Spending, impuse buys
• Adrenalin rush activities
• Lies and excuses
• Gambling
• Arguing, fighting, Getting violent (getting into conflicts with family, friends, co-workers, others) • Try to take on others problems
• Be someone other then yourself/ personality change

Wow! That is a bit scary when you look at what stress can do to you. Now is it a wonder why having stress can affect your goals?

I have a friend that works in a very fast pace job. He has been working there for many years. His goal is to get his tasks done. He works mainly in the back area where it is usually himself while there are others in the front working with customers. Lately though his job is changing so he is dealing a bit more with the customers then before. This has caused him to stress!

Look at all the things that can happen to him when he stresses. Eeek. Do you want to guess what happened to him?

Well I will tell you tomorrow. Can’t wait to see you then!


~ “Hugs” Keyria~

Seek God’s will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take~ Proverbs 3:6

You can do anything through Christ who gives you strength ~ Philippians 4:13