Yesterday I was reading an article in AARP Magazine about heart health — “The Seven Worst Things You Can Do To Your Heart.” It talked about how occasional stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but chronic stress can put your health at risk.
The FIX for that, it says, is antistress techniques: exercise, meditation, yoga, tai chi, enjoying nature, and even creative hobbies that help dial down your stress reaction. “But one key to understanding stress is that, in the end, it’s how you react to it that makes all the difference. From that point of view, a big part of the remedy is just to ask, ‘Why am I so stressed about this?’“ (I thought it was interesting that choice of career or some such thing was not mentioned in the article as it, also, has such a big bearing on our stress levels.)
It just so happens that Fimnora from Quantum Hermit and I were chatting on the phone about this last week. More specifically we were discussing whether or not happiness goes hand-in-hand with your passions.
How often have we heard it said that we should follow our hearts/dreams /passions. This, supposedly, will make us feel happy and fulfilled. But we were wondering if doing so also can cause us to feel stressed and even unhappy.
For example, I used to LOVE doing BIG cross-stitch projects as gifts for folks for special occasion. For awhile as I started them I would find them to be so relaxing. I’d put on soft music and just sit happily stitching away. But the longer it took to finish and the closer I’d get to the end, the more stressed I’d get. I just wanted to be done. I often found myself wondering if I was undoing all the good I thought I was doing “chillaxing” at first. (That’s bead work and gold metallic thread on her dress, btw.)
What about you? Do your passions ever cause you to feel up-tight and stressed? Do you have an example? Do you think that happiness DOES go hand-in-hand with passion?
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Picture Source: moi
Impromptu Promptlings 
First, what GORGEOUS cross-stitch pieces!! I have done a few in the past, and I hoard patterns that I think I’ll have time to stitch one day (besides, I just like looking at them), but nothing as skilled and ambitious as yours, although I do have some patterns by the same artist who created your Noel. Second — I don’t think my pastimes do add to stress, but that may be because my regular day job is quite stressful. Thankfully it is less so recently, because I’m now able to focus mostly on the job and less on the toxic workplace politics that truly stressed me out for years. I don’t think any amount of yoga or meditation ever could have remedied that stress. My hobbies bring me much pleasure and escapism, and they’re harmless (gardening, reading, blogging, fragrance, etc.)
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I hear ya. Toxic relationship we can’t seem to get away from are hard, too. You certainly can’t walk away from some of them. They may be family. There just seems to be no stress-busters for those kinds of things. I love Marilyn Imblum’s patterns. I’ve done several of her angels, too. When I find a pattern I think I may do later, I slip it in a page protector sleeve (or if it’s in a book I make a color copy of it) and file it in my organized binders. Did you know DMC has like 33 new colors out? I want them SO bad, but just can’t justify buying them at the moment since I’m not stitching now. I have all the others filed in plastic boxes. Yes, I’m a bit OCD about my floss and patterns! LOL 😀
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I love DMC floss too. Once I bought the color card with the little samples of thread just so I could ooh and aah over the colors! Cheap thrills. I was sad they discontinued the linen floss, those were the loveliest soft colors.
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So on the same page! LOL I have the color card, too. Though I bought it primarily to match colors to other brands like anchor. My sister had picked out this huge flower thing and wanted all the colors changed to match her living room. Lordy that was a piece of work!
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Yes, it’s how we handle the stress that is key, and how we are with ourselves as we handle it. Stress is inevitable. My body is often the canary in the coal mine. It tells me I’m stressed before I even know some of the time. I can imagine you would want to be done with any one of your pieces. What amazing detail!!! They are gorgeous!!!
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Thanks, Mary. I do enjoy making them. Mostly for other people. And you’re right. I need to learn to listen to my body more. I’m just afraid it would be telling me constantly I need a nap! LOL
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Stress has affected my health and the minute something stressful came along, an RA flare would follow with a vengeance. I’d do anything to avoid that, so I did learn relaxation techniques. I started to color post cards and write short stories–so far, they haven’t stressed me out until a recent deadline. I’m the only that can get a handle on it, though–so I do a lot of inner self-talk. Your needlework is stunning! Dawn
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I do meditation frequently. Not as often as I should. Amazon’s Echo now has a meditation app on it. It’s called Head Space. Very convenient. I can get a different one every time. They have a Daily Affirmation as well. Flare ups. That’s kind of what I’m worried about with this MG stuff. Sounds like you’re handling things well, though, Dawn. 🙂
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Interesting question. I have periods when I am consumed with whatever project I’m involved with, much like Opher, except I don’t run out of oomph. I will, for example, mass produce stuff I am crocheting. When I am done – how that happens is beyond me – it might lie untouched for years. Weird huh? I sometimes wonder if I become so consumed at times of stress as a way of sublimating the stress. I pour the energy into creative projects instead. BTW, that lady in the red dress is just gorgeous !!!
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There are four other pieces to that set. Each one look like her but their dresses are different. One for each season. This was a special one for Christmas — NOEL. I started one of the others only to have it get extremely hard to see. They’re done on 28-count dirty linen.
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I’ve had a few goes at cross-stitching but never really learnt to like it. Dirty linen huh? I presume it’s brown in colour. Would make it harder to do I expect
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Actually it comes in all colors. I think it’s really something to do with the washing and preparation of the material before they sell it.
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I don’t know about stress but I certainly often run out of steam.
I start writing a book all fired up with ideas flooding into my head faster than I can get them down. I write furiously, obsessively. I wake up in the night with ideas I have to scribble down and am consumed by it. I can’t wait to get back to it. Everything else just gets in the way.
When I’m on the last third it’s as if I’m running out of enthusiasm. It becomes a chore. I have to gather my resolve to complete it. Those last twenty/thirty thousand words are an effort.
Strangely, when looking back at the editing stage, that doesn’t seem to show in the quality of the writing. It seems consistent.
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It’s probably just second nature to you now. “When I’m on the last third it’s as if I’m running out of enthusiasm. It becomes a chore.” Yep, that’s me, too.
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My passion these days is my writing, and sometimes I stress about schedules to be met. And I definitely stress about my poem submissions to magazines. I never seem confident in my selections nor my presentations, I’m too much of a perfectionist, and everything has to be just right !! Last month I was doing a manuscript presentation to a publisher for a chapbook, and I fumbled and bumbled and stressed out so much I wasn’t sleeping, then my cry for help was answered by my sister, who put it together for me. Oh wow, I need so much more training on how to use these damn computers properly. Best I stop before I stress out with the rest of my tedious stories…….
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Are you writing full-time now, Ivor?
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Hi Calen, no not really, but every bit of my spare time, I certainly am. 😊 Still doing some plumbing, and like all of us poets, I get thoroughly frustrated, and I’m always unconvinced that I can write at all. 😆, but I forge ahead with all the support of beautiful people like you. Xx☺️
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Well keep up the good work!
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