The Lay of the Land

Image from Hljod.Huskona's Flickr stream. 

An amusing thing happens when you stare at a computer screen too long.  You go completely cross-eyed, ultimately, forgetting what you were looking for in the first place.  You see, you start out with the best of intentions, perhaps researching something for a client or a presentation you're working on.  A couple of links later you're reading an AP article on Boston.com about human origins, intrigued but confused about how you got here and where you were actually going.

Our minds really like to be kept busy.  In addition to feeling all intellectual and worldly, reading about this trend or a cool find, it keeps the neurons firing, the mind buzzing around.

But even with the best of intentions--learning and growing--it's easy to lose sight of the original end-game.  It's easy enough to get lost in the great expanse of information, adrift in options and indecision. Distracted.

Can you see the forest through the trees? 
I have to admit, it can be a challenge.

Let's say you got to the full blown computer glaze over researching a presentation for work. The presentation is on deadline, you've got a manager to please.  But there's this really intriguing tangent you could look into for a few minutes, it might give you some interesting statistic for another project you've got going on... Ah, and you're blown.  What are you ever going to do?

If you're lucky, your work nourishes your mind. At minimal, at least ideally, it nourishes your bank account.

But that's only one patch of trees.  It's not the whole lay of the land.  The forest is so much bigger.

What's the end game?
Do you feel fulfilled?  Are you satisfied?  Are you happy?

Life gets in way of really seeing the whole scene.  What are you missing by watching a patch of trees?

Yogi Under Fire

The practice of yoga is all about rewiring the fight or flight response we have in challenging moments. Through breath and mindfulness, you begin to change the situations you're in, or at least how you're choosing to perceive them.

That's all well and good for those challenging moments. But what about prolonged situations? How does the aspiring yogi handle long periods of challenging, anxiety-provoking times?

Since Thanksgiving, my family has been managing a fairly consistent challenge. With stress levels already pretty high, I came home for the holidays prepared to give support and broker some sense of calm. A challenging situation from afar; I jumped head first into the fire.

Returning to the question at hand, how do you deal with ongoing stress? Here's what I've been working with in the wild, wild west:

• Create space (for you) -- I've had to work pretty hard to find time away from all the madness of the drama at hand. But I've really needed the time and space to have the energy I need to be supportive to anyone else. It's been challenging for a few reasons: logistically, I'm without a car; emotionally, it can be hard to leave someone when they're hurting (even if you don't have anything left to give them).
• Perspective -- Although the situation here is admittedly pretty bad, I know it won't always be. It's been really helpful to remember that. I believe things will be better for everyone involved, eventually.
  
• Parse & Prioritize -- While perspective tends to feel like a future-looking worldview, the immediate issues still need to be resolved. Break down the big problems into smaller more manageable pieces; then order them according to importance and linear progressions (this has to happen before that, etc.). If you want to move out of your place, you probably want to find a new place before you pack all your stuff up.
• Talk -- Human beings are uniquely social--we need to communicate. It's healing to speak to friends, family, partners and even professionals (therapists, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc.) about what's on our minds. Also, how we feel about any given situation gets molded and refined by our contact with others. Pain, regardless of the cause, has an illness narrative.
  
• Find the Good -- Some people would call this perspective, but I think it's different. When you make the conscious choice to be happy, meditating on the good things -- especially at challenging times -- helps keep you there. This situation doesn't make me happy, but I am (sometimes with a little help) able to find some positive things that have come out of it.

I have a few more days here in the thick of it, so I'm open to suggestions. I'll keep you posted. :-)