Stress strategy…

We are humming along with our UK holiday and all is going well. Apart that is, from my having a really annoying cough that doesn’t want to go away. It’s not unusual for me to have some sort of lurgy, so I am just working my way through my stock of Paracetamol, cough mixture and lozenges. It is what it is and eventually it will go. The sooner the better!

We have been on an outing today to Chatsworth House a lovely stately home. It is half-term for the schools and attractions and roads are packed.

As I am unfamiliar with driving in the UK my husband is the primary driver. Certainly, if I can avoid it I probably won’t drive. I know that this would probably cause me unnecessary stress.

The thing is, my husband hates traffic jams. He hates any kind of queing too! Being a holiday for schools we struck more than one traffic jam on the way out and back. He sits in the car, gripping the steering wheel and voicing his annoyance/displeasure at regular intervals.

On occasions like this I try to get him to relax and go with the flow and just have the patience to get through without getting too annoyed. However, I can’t say my strategy is completely successful for him.

For myself, I have learned to be somewhat calmer these days in such situations. I subscribe now to the mindset that if I can’t change something then perhaps it is a case of accepting the inevitability of the situation. Stressing over something I can’t change is a fruitless thing to do. It would not change anything and the stress would not be good for me.

We are on holiday, so most days we don’t have to have a schedule where we are worrying about the time we spend getting somewhere. This is especially so now that we have hired a car. It was a bit different when we had to catch trains in time.

So if we have to queue, get stuck in traffic or any other potentially annoying situations – especially one of us – we may need to practice some deep breathing and patience!

We all need to have stress strategies to get us through. To recognise the stresses we can’t avoid and develop strategies to deal with them. Plus, when facing a stressful situation ask ourselves if we have to proceed and if the answer is no have the wisdom to avoid it!

Perhaps those who support us should do the same!