Stressed or Blessed, You Choose

Community Contributed

Opinion by Rick Baptiste

You and I have the power of choice to be blessed or stressed, at least in your own mind’s eye.   I have come to the conclusion, in my pursuit of happiness, that everything that has happened to me has one common denominator: me.  Every negative event and every failure in my life always had the same person left at the scene of the crime — me.  I have learned that the greatest foe in my life is not the devil, it’s the guy I look at in the mirror every morning.  The good news is that life, good or bad, is all relative.  It’s how you choose to look at life that will determine what follows.  What goggles you choose to see through today can determine your tomorrow.  You can see through the goggles of life happening “to you”, or “for you.”  You can choose to be stressed or blessed.

Stressed is a mess but blessed puts your mind at rest.  Uncle Google says that “stress” is almost always present and how you respond to stress can be detrimental to your health. Here is a short list of stress detriments:  anxiety, depression, digestive problems, heart disease, sleep problems, weight gain, memory and concentration impairment.  It’s important to learn healthy ways to deal with stress.  I have found that step number one  is to become aware when stress is happening to you.   Practice becoming aware of atress and you will find that you have the power to choose. You can continue down the road of despair or make a turn on the road of “aware” and then choose another path that can serve you.

I choose not to argue with those who are multi-taskers but Uncle Google says that your mind can only handle one focus at a time.  Therefore, you cannot go down the road of stressed and blessed in your mind at the same time.   I am becoming more aware of stress and in that moment I choose to bless.   Just yesterday, I was on my way home from town when the car in front of me seemed to have slowed down a mile before his turn off.  Immediately, I shook my head in disbelief and became aware that Mr. Disgusted was about to appear, and I simply chose to slow down and bless the bruddah.  “Don’t stress, jus bless.”