When it rains, it pours...

Usually my husband, my friends, my baby, my dog... and the snakes! When I am stressed out, doing snake care (weighing, water bowls, etc) can really pass the time and make me smile. Snakes may not care much about us, but the love we have for them can be very rewarding. I like a good book, too, if I am not too upset/distracted to read.

Unfortunately, bipolarity and some cases of depression run in both sides of my family. :/ So there have been lots of freak outs, awful days, scary episodes, hospital visits, etc. Usually when someone here becomes upset, it sets off like a chain reaction. When the tough gets going, I love to read, draw and listen to some of my favourite bands - the ones that have been keeping me sane for years hahah.

You just have to keep remembering there's beauty all around you. If you get too caught up on the small, insignificant things, you'll miss it all.

Oh, and my ball python makes me pretty happy too. :D

I get all mad/frustrated, sulk for a bit, then examine the situation from different angles. I can usually (a few exceptions) find either the way out, or the Silver Lining.

Hope all is ok with you...

Friends, Family and Faith. These are the things that have helped me through times of adversity.

Rauls idea of meditation is a great tool, it helps calm you down and focus your thoughts. Having your brain racing from one random thought to the next to the next to the next can be very uncomfortable.

Prayer and I always think of how much worse things could be. And if you truly think about it everything could be much worse. I don't want to name some of the things that could make a persons situation worse then what they are because that is left up to you. From reading your posts and such Heather I think you are a great person and I hope things turn around for you. You will be in my prayers!!!

My car. Which is probably not a good idea because there are a lot of fingers flying, and horn honking when it has been a bad day. lol.

My significant other helps a lot, unless it's him i'm mad at. Then he gets the glare. Eventually, I get a foot rub out of it. Mmmmm.

No matter how bad things seem they will ALWAYS get better. Stay positive and positive things will come your way (sounds so simple but very had to do). Live in the moment, don't look back or too far forward.

Im trying to figure out what to do myself...so far this month my dads had a stroke, a beardie died, gotten sick, and the day before I was going to ship off my black pastel she got loose and I couldnt find her.


My girlfriend helps alot when shes not mad at me:oops:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

What do you do when things all of a sudden go haywire??

When all the good things go bad??

When you think things can't get worse, and they do??

What is your saving grace?

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Heather, I think most if not all of us have been there at some point in our lives (and if you haven't been there, your turn is coming). Unfortunately it always seems that hard times hit all at once so you can barely reel away from one before the next one body slams you.

Here's my best advice from my own experiences with high stress levels and living a life that gave me wisdom sometimes with the hardest lessons possible....

- treat this time like what it is, a battleground and you are going to win come hell or high water so grit your teeth and decide no matter what crap life is currently tossing at you, you will get over it, under it, through it but you WILL (if for no other reason than you can be one stubborn female that won't give up no matter what) - somedays it's good to be a nice lady, some days it's better to be a tough broad, get my drift :)

- in the midst of all the crap set aside time for you, not time for anyone else including those you love - for me that's 1 hr every morning from 6 to 7 a.m. - my time and Heather it's precious to me and keeps me sane on days when not much else does, no one in my family ever bothers me during "my" time (if they know what's good for them that is) - do whatever you want, cruise this site, read a book, sit outside and sip tea, read a soppy romance novel, whatever is right for you that day - make you a priority for one hour out of 24 because you do deserve that break from the daily stress and you are certainly worth 60 minutes

- simplify your life, decide what is really important and what you only thought was important - you'll be amazed at the absolute junk you've drug around with you for years - physical junk, emotional junk, other people's junk - do a clean sweep as best you can - once life is simpler it's really amazing how you can once again see and appreciate the truly good things you do have in your life

- slow down, we all live far, far too fast paced a life these days - guess what almost 48 years on this earth have taught me - there's pretty much nothing that can't wait if I can't handle it right this exact second - I'm not sooooo important that life stops if I need to catch my breath, reassess or think for a moment without someone babbling in my ear - learn to say no more often to others, yes more often to yourself

- learn how to do visualization to relax, I learned years ago to do a certain visualization at bedtime when I was too stressed to sleep, practised over and over until it actually began to work - these days all I have to do is bring that picture to my mind and I'm out like a light in minutes - good sleep makes life way easier to manage

- forgive yourself for not being the perfect person, the perfect partner, the perfect daughter, whatever - you and me and everybody else isn't perfect - perfect people are boring and suck :)

For me, Heather, having a toolkit of skills to deal with stress has been a years long struggle and I'm still working on it but I think I'm getting there. You will too. Big, big hugs!

That depends on how I feel about the situation; furious or depressed.

I'm sort of ---> :fork: the remedy is Slipknot+Weights or a punching bag (karate for 12 years, it's instinct). If I'm depressed, first thing I do is cuddle up with my girlfriend (well, shes gone, so not so much anymore..) with some icecream and watch movies, and taking my bike on a really long nature trail. It helps center me and feel a bit more connected to what life really is.

Hope everything is alright :hug: