Evolution of stress.

Does anyone think we’ve reached the daily stress breaking point?  Any ideas on stress reduction while working.  Is weeding the garden a form of meditation?

I feel everyone has their own level of stress.

I try to avoid stress at all costs.

Positive thinking so avoid negative thoughts.  Some folks might call this the Pollyanna Effect.

There are several books that can help folks learn how to manage stress with positive thinking.

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

This thread might help:

https://permies.com/t/151813/Positive-thinking-health

Stress levels, and stress tolerance, seem to differ wildly based on the person. I don’t think all people are equally stressed, nor that a certain stressor would have the same effect on everyone.

I think of permaculture as reducing stress while gardening—increasing diversity and decreasing reliance on annual monocultures leads to more resilience, less worrying, better nutrition, and less work and expense than typical annual vegetable gardens or store-bought food. I don’t think of gardening as universally a stress reducer because it is possible to be stressed about the garden not doing well, as well as physically to be too hard on oneself. Having an “open hand” (seeing what happens) rather than a “closed fist” mentality (trying to control everything) always helps.

It’s different for different people but especially if your work is physical, it helps to reduce the physical stress by dressing properly for the weather, eating enough food, sleeping more, and caring for our health in ways that are simple and nourishing. Generally, it’s helpful to do things that make us feel better, whether that be talking or getting together with friends and family, reading, going out walking/biking, or not skimping on medicinal herbs or other things that help us. Our body doesn’t seem to differentiate too much between physical and mental stress so lowering one often lowers the other, too.

Weeding is absolutely stress reduction. It can be either meditative or working out hostility to clean it out of our heads.
I had a psychologist ask me once "what do you do for stress?" "I use the mattock to dig out bamboo roots"
Depending on the day, I use it either way. But it always reduces my stress to be out in the sun, listening to the birds, watching the critters, and pulling out weeds.

Is weeding the garden a form of meditation?    

Yes!
Today, I forked an old garden bed and  removed à lot of deep bermuda grass roots....one of the most satisfying and yes, meditative forms of garden work we do here....repetitive, physically exerting, hands in soil, and important for our personal food production.

On the homestead, I avoid stress. Virtually any repetitive task can be stress reducing .  I like chopping wood.   In my work life, I was a stress junkie. I thrived on it.

We all accumulate and deal with stress differently. Garden work is a good destressor for me, but elevates my husband's stress, exponentially. Heavy metal/thrash music reduces his, but more than one or two songs, and I would need a medical intervention.

Like Anne, I try hard to eliminate my exposure to stressors, as much as possible - so, bare minimum of news, I walk away from arguments - mine and other people's. With the exception of riding my motorcycle, I like quiet, calm, or playful creative things - hubby releases his via volume and physical motion. Needless to say, we BOTH adore our noise canceling headphones, and our infrequent times apart. Thankfully, we don't often *have* to use the headphones.

Tough question to quantify due to personalities.

I had to run into town today to fill up a gas can due to a power outage at my home. I have turkey eggs in my incubator and they are for a buddy of mine so I had it plugged into the generator. Not that I would not have done that for myself but I really would like a good hatch rate for him. They started hatching this morning.

On the way to town, I was behind someone driving 15 under the limit the whole time. Fine with me, not in a hurry and I don't mind driving slow. The other people behind me however.....

On the way back, traffic was backed up into the 2nd light in town (only 2 each direction) and because I could not cross the intersection without blocking it due to the amount of backed up cars, I stopped and waved a guy trying to turn left across my lane through. The person behind me could not see over my big truck and laid on the horn. Providence would have it that he was turning left at the next light and I was going straight and it was red. We stopped next to each other and I got out of my truck and had a quick discussion with this person ha ha.

So during the short 10 min ride to town and the 10 min ride back:

I enjoyed driving slow behind someone driving slow and was stress free. Some of the people behind me, not so much. Evidenced by their unsuccessful attempts to pass in town.
I enjoyed the ride back until the guy laid on the horn over something out of my control and directed the horn at me.
I got stressed out and exited my vehicle to discuss the situation with the person blowing the horn.

Ergo, I had polar opposite experiences in a 20 min period. All due to me and my personality and my stress levels were very different in that short period of time.

I say all that to say that sometimes these things may be out of your hands. My first work boss told me that if I do not love what I do, I should do something else and he said he'd help me find that something else. It has been a mantra of mine since then and I've passed that saying along many times and helped others find things they love to do.

Maybe today evidenced that I need to go to town less or not hatch my buddies eggs for him.

I think weeding or mowing, for me, is a great activity that has no stress and is such a change from my day to day responsibilities. I would say those things are absolutely a form of stress free meditation.

***Edit to add that Egotism was my issue. If only everyone drove as well as I do then we wouldn't have any issues. Egotism, seems to me, to be a lot of the root of stress.

"The dude abides"

Carmelo Panucci wrote:"The dude abides"

Some folks like Jeff Lebowski have the natural ability to keep their cool under pressure.
Others like me need to actively work at it.

I've been very disheartened lately to see casual, matter-of-fact references to widespread misery in the media (just sort of blasé noting, yeah, lots of people are laid off, things are hard for everyone). I'm right in that boat: things are rough right now.
I have to work HARD every day to keep my mental health right. And I know I'm not the only one. And I say mental health because for me, my stress turns to anxiety and then depression. I've been there and don't want to be there again.

So....I exercise hard at least 5 times a week-- this is the most important for me to keep stress/anxiety/depression away.
I work with my hands (knitting, sewing, cooking) when I can, and try to do something creative (writing, painting) when possible.
I spend time in the garden, in nature, and with my animals as often as possible.
I sing to lighten my soul (even though right now not with a chorus, I sing on my own. I don't care about my neighbors.)
I try to get out of my own head when possible. Try to remember that anxiety is not reality.
I try to breathe and realize that all this shall pass, whether I'm stressed, happy, upset or anything else. Someday I'll be old and wish I had any time back, even this stressful time.
I try to be thankful and go out of my way to be nice to other people (for purely selfish reasons: it makes me feel good).

David, I hope you're well. I love weeding, but sometimes just sitting in the garden and watching the bugs is good too.

David Nightingale wrote:  Is weeding the garden a form of meditation?

Funnily enough this came up on my firefox click bait links this morning (and got me!) - about 'super-agers'  and how important managing stress is to longevity: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/health/a71335818/superagers-how-to-destress/ The author spent time in Okinawa Japan, which is reknowed for it's long lived inhabitants.
As well as gardening daily

Gardening requires a sufficient amount of physical activity, so it’s a great way to get daily movement while also shedding stress.

they also suggested getting a dose of morning sun to reset your body clock, develop a laid back rather than rushing about, and being part of your community in person not online.

My experience over the past 20+ years has certainly been that gardening can be a key part of stress reducing in life.  

Lots of caveats to that, of course .. particularly when the kinds of stress you're under mean you don't have the energy, time or access to be in a garden!!

Growing sprouts & herbs on a windowsill might still be possible for many of us, but lots of my neighbours can't do that (urban impoverishment).

Gardening can also help connect with in-person community .. which can then be MORE stressful if they're all about agrochemicals, rotovators & otherwise killing nature!

Online community can be vital, when you're dealing with all the above & more.

It looks like the UN is going to publish an update on the so-called Blue Zones soon .. looks like the records might not be as reliable as we'd thought.

But I think they'll still find that living in a flourishing in-person community which grows their own veg & fruit collectively is a good stress reducer overall!

I find that gardening/weeding/tinkering *can* be stress reducing, but context is important.  For me, if I catch my brain in the "roundy-roundies", immersed in a mental rehashing of scenarios about some issue that is giving me stress, then the physical task at hand is not providing much benefit to stress reduction.  However,....and in keeping with many schools of meditative thought..., if I focus on identifying and naming the weed, observe attentively the scraping away of the soil to get down to the root, observe pulling as much of the root as I can, observing the pulled root itself for a moment, all of these micro-attentions bring my physical motions, observations, and awareness onto the task at hand.  What can be forgotten at times is the fact that our subconscious likely is still working on the issues of concern, but they lose their stressfulness to a greater or lesser degree through this latter approach.  This also could be the basis for "I'm going to sleep on it before making a decision....", allowing the subconscious during sleep hours work on the issues towards greater clarity the following day.  This latter approach can pertain to doing dishes, preparing meals, chopping firewood, etc.  At any rate, I can clearly perceive the difference in outcomes depending on whether I've let my chaotic brain have the upper hand or applied mindfulness and attention to what is immediately before me.

That's a good point John - focus on what you're doing: something that is meaningful, but not stressful. I find knitting or cross stitch embroidery also fit the bill. Jigsaw puzzles, although less useful perhaps, exercise the brain in a peaceful way that can really help with healing thoughts, rather than stress contributing thoughts.

There are 5 Pillars of Health (something Tereza mentioned reminded me of this.)

1. Nutrition (Eating the right foods, getting a balanced diet that provides essential nutrients.)

2. Exercise

3. Sleep

4. Emotional well being

5. Social Connections  (the Permies Forum is a great connection.)