I'd really love to be one of those people whose reaction to stress is a burst a manic energy -- the ones who immediately buckle down and clean (and possibly paint!) the entire house when the stress hits. I'm the other kind. I respond to intense stress by turning into a deer in the headlights. My coping style is neither fight nor flight. It's more like sit here motionless, pretending to be invisible, and hope the threat leaves on its own. I've spent more than a few hours immobilized by anxiety lately. This, it turns out, does not get the packing done. Nor the sorting of belongings headed for the thrift store. Nor the other 10,000 things that have to be completed before we move at the end of the month.
I'm trying to remember to take action. Even if the action's small. Maybe I could build momentum. You never know.
Yesterday I scored big-time. A couple about 10 minutes away advertised their barely-used moving boxes on Craigslist. I was the first to arrive and drove away with the car full of boxes. Yay!
I'm so distracted it's getting ridiculous. I'm forgetting things. Simple things. Things I can't believe I'm forgetting. I forgot my clothes in the laundry room, twice. Then later in the bathroom, I'm ready to change tampons, I pull out the first one and looky there! Another string! Evidently I'd forgotten to take one out before putting another one in. I guess I should be glad there were only two.
I would say "Maybe you need to slow down," only I'm barely moving as it is. Maybe I should pay closer attention? You think?
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6 comments:
Oh, I hear you. Stress often immobilizes me. On the bright side? Being immobilized means that when you finally DO get going, you by necessity must skip some of the things that you were stressing out about as ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY that are in fact not necessary. Like sorting through every single thing you own BEFORE you move, or finally organizing your bead collection, or whatever. Stuff you really do not need to do before you move, but put tremendous pressure on yourself to do because you "should."
YMMV, though. :)
Oh I'm the same way. I can't get anything done until the very last minute.
Me too. I had a horrible 3 weeks in Hong Kong when I was so stressed over one decision I had to make, that I basically lost all ability to do anything without being prompted into it. I find it an annoying trait, but suspect I really do just need that time to process stuff.
Totally with you.
On a different topic, my mom has a horrible story about how often women will come to her office (she's a nurse, working for a family practitioner) complaining about a really terrible smell "down there," only to find that, yes, they forgot to remove that last tampon and it has actually rotted in there. Needless to say, I'm careful about this now.
You've been tagged just in case you need any good activities to help with procrastination ;)
I tagged you for a meme. ;)
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