stress, thoughts, and a vestigial headcold

I was stressing to an unusual degree about my upcoming trip to Texas for a living-history event.  All sorts of things that i need to do cropped up at the eleventh hour.  I caught a cold.

And an unusual cold it is.  It feels like a virus wrapped in cotton-wool:  numb brain, low energy, head and body aches, rough throat, and the kind of sinus drainage that does NOT come from allergy ... but all in a vague fashion -- not acute.  Nevertheless, i think that normal cold treatment is in order.  REST.  I'm delaying my trip, then driving straight to Houston before going with my daughter to NOLA for Halloween weekend.

Goes t' show ya!  The lifestyle changes which have protected me from illness (including the flu) for the last few years aren't effective against that endogenous saboteur called STRESS.

And stress is largely self-inflicted.  Unconsciously so in the case of diet and nutrition (in most people), semi-consciously from choices we feel we can't avoid, or fully-consciously-but-resentfully when we know we shouldn't procrastinate/worry/work too hard/stay in a bad situation, etc ... but have a hard time breaking the habit.  The first two are my buggaboos.  I have too many interests, and can't stay on top of all i want or need to do.  A deadline appears, an unexpected task pops up, and voilá -- stress.

I sometimes think that putting a name to it has made it worse.  People "in the old days" had plenty of stress, but approached the situation from a different point of view.  In the western world, the troubles of life were often looked upon as a test of faith sent by "God," ridiculous as it appears to the modern science-based mind.  Individuals were encouraged to bear up courageously with the promise of heaven as their reward, but if they failed their test ... well, then they deserve their bad fate, don't they?  Talk about a rigged system.

But now we try to solve our problems rather than just cope, sometimes with the aid of pharmaceuticals and other little helpers.  We feel like ALL problems have a solution, or should have, and we're not willing to just let go.  We no longer look on life the same way.  We also allow cultural myths to dictate what life OUGHT to be like, and THAT is largely BS.

There are all kinds of recommendations on how to reduce stress, and most of them are great in theory ... if difficult to actually PRACTICE.  If you can sit down and meditate when your brain won't stop enumerating all the things you need to get done ... you're a better man than i, Gunga Din.

*****
There have been some terrific ideas in the blogs recently!  (Of course, i'm speaking of MY BLOG LIST, not other people's! [wink, nudge])  Kindke, Fred, and Sid (on a non-dietary subject) -- great points made!  And just like the political situation here in the US, when some things are SO CLEAR to "us," what the hell is the matter with the thinking processes of those other people???  How CAN people who are stuck in an outworn world-vision become unstuck?