De-stressing

Everyone has tells for when they are stressed. My ex-fiancé used to call everyone he knew when he had a deadline closing in on him. My signs are usually a bit more subtle. Here’s what I’ve been noticing:

• seeking comfort
  This is the basic stress response. Television, Dr. Pepper, and chocolate cake are among my favorites, although as stress increases, they become less interesting to me.
  
• physical oddness
  Waking up in the night by sharp pain. This is a bit of an early warning signal about stress that goes away once I become more conscious of the stress and how I hold myself under it.
  
• doing things (or at least starting to) without being aware of them.
  Along the lines of putting milk in the cupboard or the freezer.
  
• letting things go
  The blog is a great example of this. I suspect this is partially a sense of time issue. That I’m not as aware of time passing because I’m focused on not thinking about whatever is stressing me out. There’s also a bit of a bandwidth issue. Ironically, of course, getting things done is one of the best de-stressers there is.
  
  I’ve got 13 work days left at my job. I’m not ready for it to be finished, not from the state of the project I’m doing or the moving on to something else.
  
  For the most part, I’ve been stressed but optimistic about the changes. But today’s been one of those days that fries you and I’m freaking out. At least I’m still managing to get things done.