stressed

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Why You Should Be Tired More Often

Did you know that you can be too tired to worry or be stressed about something? … It happened to me on the weekend.

be tired
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When you are tired, you lose some important cognitive abilities … like when I’ve fallen asleep on the couch watching TV and Lily says, “Come on Paul, it’s time for bed.” It makes perfect sense to get up and go to bed – after all, I am sleeping and our bed would be much more comfortable. 

But brain connectors get short-circuited when you are tired. You don’t see things the same way. You don’t think rationally at all. 

When Lily tells me to get off the couch, my brain tells me that the show is not over. Truthfully, I’m not watching the show – I’m asleep! My brain tells me that I’ll miss something, but actually I’ve already missed a lot of things. 

Your brain doesn’t reason well when you are tired; you accept things the way they are.

So sometimes I’ve stayed on the couch, sleeping in some weird position that I pay for in the morning … all because my brain makes me think that this is better than getting up and going immediately to bed.

I’ve been told – though I can’t verify it to be true – that you study better when you’re tired because your brain will more readily and easily accept the information you put into it. When you are alert, you question the information or challenge it. … Just make sure the information you are studying is correct or you will do brutally on your exam!

That brings me to this weekend …

Normally, when I get a phone call late in the evening, I’m immediately concerned even before I answer the call. But on Saturday night I had already nodded off when my cell phone started ringing. 

I just instinctively reached for it.

It was my guest speaker for our church service the next day. Very quickly he told me that his plane had been grounded and he would not be able to make it to speak at our church in the morning. 

Now, normally that would send me into a little bit of a panic. What will I do? What should I speak on? How can I possibly prepare something in time? 

But I was tired and I just accepted the information, jumped into bed and went to sleep. 

No panic, no stress, no worry. I was so tired that my brain didn’t challenge the information. It just accepted it. 

In the morning, I remembered I had spoken at a men’s breakfast a few weeks earlier. I pulled out that talk, spent about forty-five minutes editing it, and was ready to preach. 

No stress, no worry. … Man I’m glad I was tired when I got that phone call!

Here’s the thing: There was one more thing I did do that night as my head hit the pillow. I prayed and asked God to somehow give me a sermon or something to preach. And very quickly in the morning the idea of preaching that men’s message popped into my head. It seemed like God was saying, “Here you go”. It would have made more sense to be stressed and start to work on something right away. But really we should rely more on God to supply our need … and maybe be more tired, so we don’t stress or worry about how He’s going to come through.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you stressed about right now that you should ask God for? Leave your questions and comments below.

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Stress Can Be Good Or Bad

There is a certain amount of stress that’s good for you.

If we didn’t have any stress in our lives we probably wouldn’t get anything done. We would resort to saying, “Oh maybe I’ll do that tomorrow” … and tomorrow would never come.

If there was no stress, we would procrastinate … and some of us would procrastinate more.

Stress keeps us on our toes; it moves and motivates us, makes us feel responsible, and gets us to the deadline. 

These are all good things; we need a little stress in our lives. When stress builds up in us too much, however, it’s not good.

This last week I went golfing with my family. We hardly ever golf together because some of us hardly ever golf.

My son, Mike, and I golf the most, and Lily golfs with me when we’re on vacation. Karlie hasn’t golfed in two years.

Mike had a week of vacation and thought it would be nice to get a game in with the family. We looked at a couple of courses that would be within driving distance for all of us.

We ended up choosing a course that would be better suited for Mike and I and not Lily and Karlie. We got a really good deal on it so we booked it. 

Shortly after the arrangements had been made, Lily told me not to get all stressed, because that would impact the rest of the family. 

I have to tell you, I tried not to stress about it. I even prayed about it. 

Back when I was learning to golf, I felt pressure to keep up, to not hold up other golfers, whether I was golfing with them or they were in the group behind me. 

So knowing that this course was a little long for my wife and daughter, and knowing we were playing early in the morning, by the time I got to the course I was already tense.

I was definitely not relaxed. 

Even before we teed off, I was concerned about how quickly the next group would catch up to us and if we would be holding them up. … and I felt this even though there was no group behind us! 

All I can say is my game didn’t get off to a fantastic start … and it was all downhill from there. 

I could not get myself to relax and simply enjoy some time with my family. I was tense and hit more bad shots in that game than I’ve hit all season long so far. 

I kept looking back for the group behind us. I felt responsible to watch where everyone’s shot ended up. I constantly kept telling Lily and Karlie what they might be doing wrong when they hit bad shots. 

The crazy thing was they all got better as the round went on but I got worse. And that group behind us never did catch up and have to wait for us.

Here’s the thing: We are told in scripture to give our burdens to the Lord … but stress is a difficult burden to let go of when you’re in the middle of it. So first stop and recognize the stress, what it is, where it’s coming from, and how it’s affecting you. Then tell the Lord you want to give Him that stress. Third, focus, embrace, enjoy, immerse yourself in the task at hand. Doing that will shift your emotions and allow you to let go of the stress. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How has stress got the best of you? Leave your comments below.