7 Strategies to Overcoming Stress

I want to welcome and thank my newest follower, Becky! 

I hope you will enjoy your time visiting my blog. Please do feel free to leave a comment.

All around us there are calamities and wars or rumours of wars. There is drought, there is starvation, there is violence everywhere, there are natural disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Haiti, New Zealand and Japan. There is economic crisis and joblessness. Sometimes we just get overloaded with stress from what is happening around us and to us.  We can become fearful and not know know how to deal with the barrage of things coming our way. We can begin to feel hopeless and full of despair. 

It is for all of these reasons that it is important to know how to deal with stress.  I am no different than most people and so I also need to learn strategies for dealing with stress. I also need continuous reminders and encouragement for how to reduce stress so that I can live the best life for me and for my loved ones and friends.

Today I heard a sermon on 7 strategies for dealing with stress and I took notes while the preacher was preaching. I thought these strategies were good and so I wanted to share them with you. I'm sharing them because now more than ever, I hear from friends and loved ones about how they feel overwhelmed in these tumultuous times.

1. Face the future with faith.   Powerful events create fear and cause people to die of stress, anxiety and phobias.

And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars,   and on the earth nations will be in distress,   anxious  over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. People will be fainting from fear  and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 

 Luke 21:25-26

The next verses however tells us that the Son of man shall come with power and great glory when these things happen and that our redemption draws near when he returns. (Luke 21:27-28)

Luke 21:36 tells us to watch when we hear and see bad things all around us, and to pray that we will have strength.

2. Exercise regularly. Exercise relieves stress by decreasing stress hormones like cortisol. Apostle Paul compared physical exercise with physical living. (1 Timothy 4:8). Godliness and it's fruit will last well beyond physical lives but physical exercise has value. The exercise doesn't have to be demanding. It can simply be a nice walk where you can enjoy the flowers, the birds singing, or walking your dog on a leash and enjoying how dogs love to explore everything they come across.

3. Claim God's promises. There are many such promises in the Bible. (Peter 1:4) God has given us in His Word exceedingly great and precious promises.  He promises to answer our prayers. (Matthew. 7:7-8) Promises to give us the desire of our hearts if we delight in Him. (Psalm 37:4-5)

4. Forgive one another. (Proverbs 20:22)  There have been studies to show that people who forgive someone who has wronged them can enjoy physical, emotional and spiritual well being. Forgiveness is defined as letting go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. See this article from the Mayo Clinic.

5. Pray about your problems with an attitude of thanksgiving. Acknowledge your fears and worries and ask God for his help. (Philippians 4:6)  Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Share your intimate thoughts with God. He knows them anyway.

 6.  Stay positive. Maintain a positive and tranquil mind.  The Apostle Paul talks about the beating he had received while in prison but he focussed on maintaining a positive attitude (2 Corinthians 11:24-25) . Even while in prison he wrote letters of encouragement to other Christians (Philippians 4:8-9).  We are encouraged to focus on things that are lovely and pure.  It is so important to keep a sense of joy and wonder about life and our blessings even in the  midst of trials and difficulties.

 

7.  Set the right goals. Not all stress is bad. Jerrold Greenburg who wrote the book Comprehensive Stress Management tells us that the goal of stress management is not to eliminate all stress in our lives. We can use stress to help us achieve our goals if we channel it in the right way. We need motivation to be successful in life and stress if managed properly can help us achieve our goals.  Jesus tells us in Matthew  6:33 to "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you".

I wanted to add that eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep are also very important to how you handle stress on a daily basis.  I am still working on trying to implement all these strategies as consistently as possible. Some days I am more successful than other days. The important thing is I keep trying.

If you are dealing with overwhelming stress, 
I want to encourage you to keep hope in your heart.  
God says in his Word that he has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy  1:7)

A New Dish to Try & Making Progress on Goals

I've spent the past two days getting caught up on Spring cleaning and pulling together all of the things I will give away or try to sell.  Normally I give everything to the thrift stores but I think this time I will do up an advertisement for Freecycle.  This is where you and like minded people, offer or request things that you want to get rid of, or acquire for free.  Even though there is a local branch, I actually heard of this service through a friend who lives in North Carolina. While I've been a member for quite some time, I've never actually used the service so this will be my first try.  I have a lot to give away: 6 bags of outerwear and linens, one tub of patterns, and two small boxes.

My assortment of stuff for giveaway.

I also did a lot of laundering of things that only get laundered maybe once a year and need special attention.  Lots of things continue to be moved around the apartment and "rejigged" as I get rid of things and make room.  This is a constant "work in progress".  I'm getting fairly close to getting to outstanding paper clutter and going through the 4 drawer file cabinet. I intend to get rid of at least 3 of the 4 drawers of paper but these need to be shredded and that takes time.  Once there is room in the cabinet,  I can add the papers that are currently in boxes I brought home from moms. I have already sorted through these boxes fairly well once when I first brought them to my home but next sort will be the fine tuning one where I decide what is absolutely necessary to keep.  My challenge is that I am the keeper of special or important documents; not just mine but for 3 other adults (family members) who cannot keep it for themselves due to various circumstances.

Another big project out of the way today was a good cleaning of the garden. A friend came over to do the work for me and I was amazed at how much he did in such a short time. It took him about 2 hours to clear away what would normally take me time over a 2 or 3 day period. I'm so pleased to have this work done because it is going to rain for the next few days. Once the rain stops, the bedding plants will at last get planted!  The constant rains and cool weather have really delayed all this work but at least it is getting done now. We did have a few days of sunshine but on those days I was busy. The patio furniture will be cleaned up very soon too and made ready for al fresco dining and relaxing with friends.

I managed to try another new recipe today. Something I've been wanting to try for years. I don't know why but it is one of those dishes that I just never got around to making and I felt intimidated by. I have my blogging friend, Diane at the blog, My Life in the Charente to thank for inspiring me to make the soup at last and I was pleased to find that it is really very easy.  My regular readers know that I only like to make easy recipes.  You can find Diane's recipe for butternut squash soup here.

Butternut Squash Soup

I most often modify recipes according to what I have on hand and today was no exception. In this case, I omitted the dairy, the citrus and the apple; not because I didn't want to add these but I didn't happen to have them on hand even though I normally would have these items in stock! I just made sure I had enough broth and seasoning to ensure the squash and onions were cooked and to ensure that the blended version would be reasonably thick and creamy. It worked out perfectly and it was so tasty! I will definitely try this soup again and also the spinach soup I tried for the first time the other day.

A Thing of Beauty is Joy Forever, Skywatch April 6, 2011

Thank you and welcome to my newest follower, Wren.

Long time readers of this blog know how much I love apple, cherry and plum blossoms. I never, ever get tired of them and they bring such joy to me at this time of year.

Yesterday was an especially nice day to take a walk since it has been raining so much here and we haven't been getting consistent sunshine. I took these two photos to show you the blossoms and also to let you see that there is still fresh snow on the mountains.

Please click on the SkyWatch badge and it will take you to more beautiful skies around the globe. Thanks for stopping by!

Spinach Soup & Bean Salad

Now and then I like to try new recipes. A good part of the time the recipes are from blogging friends. This week I also tried a simple bean salad I've been wanting to make for awhile and somehow never seem to get around to.

About two weeks ago I bought and soaked garbanzo beans and kidney beans intending to make this salad but ended up not doing so. So this week, I went out and bought a large can of mixed beans and a regular sized can of green beans.

I drained and rinsed both cans of beans and put them in a corning ware dish (any serving dish will do).  I then chopped some roasted red peppers and added them to the mix. I wanted to add some chopped red onions but I didn't have any on hand. For the dressing, I mixed some cider vinegar, olive oil, sugar to taste, cracked salt and pepper and whisked them all together. I tossed the dressing and bean mixture and put it all in the fridge to chill for a few hours.

You can tell I was in a hurry because of the splashes of "juices" on the bowl.

I also made a delicious spinach soup from a recipe posted by my friend Jo over at her blog Memorable Meanders. You can find the recipe here at Jo's blog.

Thanks to Jo for sharing the recipe for this wonderful soup. It's a keeper.

Visting a Village

I would like to welcome my newest follower CrystalMary.  So glad to have you on board CM!

When I last left you on my Kenyan safari we were in the town of Marigat. As we left Marigat we proceeded east for about 3 or 4 hours along dirt roads that had huge ruts in them. The earth was parched and in many places we drove through fields where there were no roads at all.  We were "bump bumping" along the road for hours and hours.  We thought it might be a shortcut to where we were going to take this route but in the end, I think it might have taken longer.  I didn't mind. I took it all in stride as an adventure since I've been to Kenya on these "roads" before.

I took many lovely photos but unfortunately most of these are not yet recovered. My regular readers will know that I had problems with the memory card and lost a lot of my photos. I have yet to recover them all.

On this journey there were lots of cacti.

You can see that it is still fairly green where these huts are located.

In my post on Marigat, I mentioned that the town has a Perkerra Irrigation Project. You can see beyond the tree that the fields are lush and green. This is a result of the irrigation project.

I made a special point of capturing this bike parked by the tree in the the middle of seemingly no where.  The irrigated lands are just beyond.

We passed so many cattle and goats along the way though you can't really see water here there is supposed to be the Perkerra River. That is where the water is coming from for the irrigation project.

I love the trees in Kenya.

You can see how dry the earth looks.

We're taking a "shortcut" to the village. Before we can get there we must cross this river.

I decide to cross the river on foot.  It's part of the adventure and will make interesting memories.

I took a lot of photos from the passenger's window as we drove by. Some turned out better than others. Some huts were close together like these while others were much farther apart.

There were several ostriches around the area and they provided a lot of entertainment for me. I  love watching them move across the dusty savannah. One kick from their long legs would certainly knock a person out.

I'm not sure of the name of the place we were headed though I have in fact been there before. It is a village of very far flung huts and not much else. Though there is a church, perhaps more than one.

You can see that the area is rather mountainous and rocky but the flat land is very dry. 

We were on our way to a small place that I had visited approximately 4 years earlier. I had visited the missionary in the area and we were discussing the need for a community borehole. A year after I left this place some contacts I made visited this community with my friend Jonah and committed to raising funds for a borehole. 

This part of our journey was in the main part of the village. We had to drive through the fields to get to our final destination.

I had to take photos of this man because he was walking in a far away village and he was carrying a briefcase. I was fascinated that he had a briefcase. I couldn't fathom what kind of work he might be doing and where he might be going. I imagine he was going home but what office was he leaving?

I zoomed in to get a better look at the briefcase.

Where ever I go I love to see the children.

I also love to see girls and young women being girls and sharing their confidences with one another.

The final leg of our long journey was on roads like this and the field below. These were good roads and easy to travel compared to the first several hours of our trip off the highway.

My next post on the Kenyan safari will take you to the actual village borehole. I hope you will come again soon.

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A Time for Every Purpose

  For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
  A time to be born and a time to die.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2

I went to early morning services this morning at church. I usually go to the late morning service but today the power was being turned off for the morning at my building while they do some kind of maintenance work. It seemed best to be out.

When I got home I was stunned by a phone call from my mother. She reported that Marlene, the wife of the husband and wife team (Tom & Marlene) that looks after my autistic niece and another autistic woman, in addition to their own daughter, has died. 

Marlene died very suddenly yesterday of a massive heart attack. She was only 49 years old. 

While most of us know that death can come to any of us at any time, we are nevertheless shocked when it happens so suddenly to someone in seeming good health.  

After talking with my mom, I called Marlene's husband, Tom and offered my condolences. He is in shock and doing his best to remain positive and focused for the whirlwind that will arrive this week as family and loved ones arrive.  Even in grief he recognizes that my niece also needs comfort as it is like she has lost two moms and I guess she has been saying "Marlene died, like mom".  He told me that he shared with my niece that his wife is now in heaven greeting my sister, my niece's own mom and that the two of them are laughing and sharing stories about my awesome niece.  I guess my nephew has also been there to comfort his sister.

 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn...

Ecclesiastes 3:4

I just heard the news and I am still processing it. I am in a bit of shock and my system is jolted with the sudden and unexpected news.  My heart is grieved for a woman I knew to be a powerhouse in her sphere of influence and she will be greatly missed.

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again...

Ecclesiastes 3:20

I will say some prayers for the family today and gives thanks anew for my daily blessings and the gift of life, a fragile and sometimes fleeting gift.

Love to you and yours.

Journey to Marigat

I want to say a big "welcome and thank you" to my newest blog followers: Chicken Underwear, Barbara Rosenweig, Jack and Donetta.

When I last left off on my Kenyan safari, I was just wrapping up the tour in the Nakuru National Park. Now I want to take you north, to Marigat, Kenya.  My memory is getting a little fuzzy but I believe it took about 5 hours to drive from Nakuru to Marigat with one stop at the equator.

You can see the Kenyan sky is quite cloudy in some areas. It looks like it might rain.  Yet in other areas it was quite blue. It was a very hot day that day and it was nice to sit in a large and comfortable van by an open window to catch the breeze created by the speed of driving.

This photo is taken on the site of the new visitors centre at the equatorial line in Kenya.

Here I pose for a photo.

I tried to get as many flags in one photo as possible.  My flag is in the foreground, I couldn't capture it if I wanted the big globe and the Kenyan flag in the photo too.

Marigat is a small town in the Rift Valley and it is known for its extremely hot and dry weather. There are no major hotels at this small town but there are places to lodge and to eat.  There are also banks and shops in the town.  Marigat, is the last main stopover for tourists before you drive on to a couple of well-established spa resorts located about 20 km away at Lake Borgoria to the southeast and Lake Boringo to the north.   I will feature the resorts in future blog posts.

Marigat also seems to be the hub of market activity for the surrounding villages.  There are many people living in small villages for miles and miles around.  Most of them are pastoralists and they go to  Marigat to buy things or to conduct their business.  I'm sure many villagers never even make it to Marigat and make do with what they have wherever they live. In my next post about my Kenyan safari I will take you to such a place.

The next few photos give you an idea what the terrain is like on the drive from Nakuru into Marigat. 

Seeing goats on, or along the highway, is a fairly typical sight.

The next two photos are taken on the highway just outside the town of Marigat.  It was market day and there were scores of people walking on the highway going to and from the market.

Although Marigat is a very dry place there is an Perkerra Irrigation Project in place.  I've read that this is responsible for the rapid growth of this still small but bustling town.  While we were driving on to a particular village we drove past a lot of the irrigated lands.

Here is downtown Marigat. It is full of matutus (small van buses) and people trying to get to their homes in far flung villages and towns. Everywhere too there are jeeps and 4x4s with people trying to fasten down their purchases and get a ride as close to their homes as possible as regular vehicles cannot make the journey.  Many of the people making the purchases have small stalls/stores in their little villages to service the other residents.

I'm always fascinated by the street scenes in Kenya.  This young girl was trying to sell me a bag of produce.

 

Women line the main highway to sell produce.  This kind of market place activity is quite common everywhere you go in Kenya. Usually the women purchase produce in bulk and then sell it at a small mark up to try and make a living each day  They work long hours and sit in the hot sun all the day long.  It is so hot and dusty in this place that I couldn't imagine me doing this. I needed cold water every so often.

We had lunch at this establishment that has a balcony overlooking the main highway and the activity down below.

Some people don't come to eat or drink. They just come to relax and watch people down below.

Our stopover at Marigat is not long. We only have lunch, use the facilities and buy water for the long journey ahead.  We are on our way to an outlying village and it will take hours over bumpy and dusty roads to get there. I have been there once before and am anxious to see it again.

In case you've missed other posts in this series, please do check them out. You can find some links at the bottom of this post.  Also check out my stories about little Kigen, the young boy who needs medical help. Please keep him in your prayers.

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