I recently spoke with someone who said they avoid pressure. Personally, I tried not to laugh, because if you can do that, well good for you. As it turns out, they are under a lot of it at the moment.
Pressure Can’t Be Avoided
If a person can avoid it in their life, kudos to them. Even this person thought that they could do it forever. Pressure and stress work hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. No one seeks out those situations, but let’s face it, they are out there. Everyday life is a pressure pot. Driving in traffic is trying just as dealing with other people everyday. As I stated earlier, I tried not to laugh at this person. I explained a personal situation to them that I experienced years ago. Sometimes confronting what you think is pressure, can make you stronger.
Positive Pressure
As with every human emotion, there is a positive to equal the negative. A positive force can lend itself to solving many problems. So in this instance, pressure can be a good thing. It can force someone to persist in their efforts for the greater good. One example being pressuring a child to keep studying for that higher grade. It may not be a popular premise to children, but it needs to be done for them to sometimes do it. In the long-term it usually is justified. I had to resort to it many times, but the result shows me my efforts were not wasted. Everyone has a difficult point in their life. Just a matter of how far it goes.
Negative Pressure
So the opposite of positive is obviously negative. This was the kind of pressure my acquaintance tries to avoid at all costs. I say, well don’t we all! I have never intentionally sought out negative elements in life for fun. But sometimes they just appear, and out of nowhere at that. An example I can think of immediately is being pressured to use alcohol or drugs by peers. This is a form of negative pressure we have all gone through at some point in our lives. The prevalence of it today is enormous. Just watch the news and hear of all the instances of overdoses and deaths. Bad decisions made under pressure, of the very worse kind.
Negative pressure knows no bounds. Everyone gets effected at one time or another, either early on in life or later. Pressure exists in everyday life, so yes, even my friend can’t escape it. The question is how are you going to handle it.
Pressure and How to Deal with It
Books have been written by so many people, experts and non-experts alike, telling us how to handle pressure in our lives. So how do you cope with pressure situations, good and bad? I threw the good in there because yes, believe it or not, the good ones can cause you stress too.
Personally, I am going through a real rough time at the moment. The pressures and stress are enormous. Those close to me will undoubtedly always say that I brought them on myself. Sure, I’ll accept that, but with a positive means hopefully coming in the end. I handle pressure, especially negative, in different ways depending on my mood in general. No, alcohol solves nothing, but a glass of wine now and then helps to take the edge off. Watching funny shows makes me laugh. Laughter is good for just about anything. Then I work out. For the last few months I have increased my walking time. It eases the stress and gets those happy endorphins going. Added benefit is it’s good for your health too. The other thing I depend on is music. Not one day goes by where you can’t find me listening to my favorite songs and tapping my feet. Music is essential to good health, at least in my opinion. Music therapy has become a constant in certain types of psychiatric treatment. Who really doesn’t love it?
Whatever your method of dealing with pressure in life, just remember, everyone has it at one time or another. It doesn’t discriminate and even the happiest of souls go through bouts every so often. It’s not the end of the world, and yes the light shines brightly at the end of that long tunnel!