Talk Your Way Out of Stress

I had started my new job, which tends to kick up stress. I had done a project at home and I had sent the project via the Internet to my employer. It was a project that had taken hours to do. Happy with my accomplishment and secure with the knowledge that I had completed the job, I went to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, and I checked my email, as I always do. There was a note from my employer telling me that he had received my project attachment but that there was only one paragraph contained within. Horrified by this turn of events, I quickly searched in my sent file and sure enough, there was only one paragraph out of five pages. Gone, I tell you, all gone! Luckily, I had printed a hard copy out or all of my hard work would have been down the toilet. Speaking of which, while I was attempting to figure out what had happened to my file, my daughter went in the bathroom and when she flushed, the toilet was clogged and overflowed all over the bathroom floor. Grabbing some old towels, I basically put a bandage on the situation and then I went to my fax machine and attempted to send the work that way. Unfortunately and for some mysterious reason, my fax machine would not send the papers. I worked on it for about an hour, to no avail. My infant son had been fussing this whole time and my daughter had become cranky and I was about ready to blow.

I went in my room to take a few deep breathes and when I turned on the light, the bulb blew out.

My employer was waiting, my kids were crying, the bathroom floor now resembled a pond, sans the fish, and I was in the dark, literally! I felt like I kept receiving that card in monopoly that says, "Do not pass go! Do not collect $200.00!"

I wanted to pass go, so I picked up the phone and I called my sister and I told her that I was having a horrendous day. I proceeded to share what had happened and she listened with a sympathetic ear. At the end of my tale of woe, she said, "Is there anything I can do to help?" And I replied, "You just did it." And she had. Just by listening to what had happened, and by my being able to say my frustrations, she had helped beyond anything I could think of. My stress had dissipated to the point where I was able to accomplish what I needed to. I went out to fax the project, I came home, changed the burnt bulb, cuddled my son and daughter into peace, washed the filthy towels, mopped the floor and fixed the toilet

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