The Resolute Woman

Category: stress

  • Drink and be whole

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Poetry helps me when I feel stressed or anxious. Recently—I can’t remember where or when—I heard someone quoting Robert Frost. “Here are your waters and your watering place. Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.” I like the message. What makes me feel less stressed and less anxious? A poem. A walk. A phone conversation…

  • I am not okay

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    I am okay. That’s what I frequently tell friends when they ask how I am doing during this coronavirus pandemic. And, I am okay—almost all of the time. But, sometimes I am not okay. Recently, a friend said that she had read an interview with a mental health expert who stressed that it is okay…

  • It’s okay to do nothing

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    I am cleaning the drawers in my desk. The task makes me feel productive—which makes me feel better. I have to remind myself that it’s also okay to do nothing. My husband, Jerry, read an article in The New York Times by a psychologist or psychiatrist who emphasized that message: All of us are feeling…

  • A gloomy day

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in , , ,

    I woke up Sunday feeling gloomy. The gloom surrounded me as I faced another day of stay-in-place during this coronavirus crisis. The gloom lingered until I took my afternoon walk and saw a friendly neighbor and some spring flowers starting to bloom. “Where flowers bloom so does hope,” Lady Bird Johnson once said. –Joy

  • No man–or woman–is an island

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    “We are each other’s keepers,” writes William Falk, editor-in-chief of The Week magazine. “Deeper truths often are delivered in the envelope of a crisis. Falk quotes John Donne, who said: “No man (or woman) is an island. Every man (or woman) is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

  • Waking dreamers

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    by

    resolutewoman
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    Edward Wilson, the biologist, explained why we sometimes feel stressed. “Humanity today,” Wilson said, “is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval…

  • Go easy, and be filled with light

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    The poet Mary Oliver speaks to me when I feel stressed. Here are lines from her poem “When I Am Among the Trees.” Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you, too, have come…

  • Seat assignment?

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    resolutewoman
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    I was packing for a trip to Vancouver when I noticed that we didn’t have seat assignments. And, then, when I tried to get assignments online, American Airlines wouldn’t let me. And, I tried to call American Airlines, and its computer told me that I needed to call back because the airline was receiving so…

  • Eat cookies

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    “Today I will live in the moment—unless it’s unpleasant in which case I’ll eat cookies.” I found this quote in the latest FemaleCreations catalog. I found it the day I felt a bit lethargic because I had eaten too many cookies the day before. I enjoyed the cookies, but I ate too many!

  • Anger and other negative emotions

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Presidents with great leadership skills learn to control their negative emotions, Doris Kearns Goodwin told an Arts & Letters Live audience in Dallas earlier this year. Kearns is the author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times. For example, Abraham Lincoln wrote many angry letters—and then never mailed them. And, when Franklin Roosevelt was preparing for his…