Pass the monkey!

That little phrase "pass the monkey" was one I learnt within a work environment many years ago and it often proved a timely reminder when I was being pressurised into taking the stress or responsibility for a situation that simply wasn't part of my remit. It's one that applies in my personal life too...having had so called "friends" a few years ago who did not observe boundaries but constantly heaped the stress of their continuing dramas upon me in the end it nearly broke me. Nowadays I have removed those toxic relationships from my life...no doubt those particular people are repeating the pattern with someone else. Don't get me wrong I'm there 100% for my chums and genuine difficulties it's just that I can differentiate far better these days. These two little snippets came up on my Book of the Face this week which seem to be conveying the very same message.

This piece of advice was apparently given by a psychologist as a tool for dealing with stress and comes from Daniel Waple's page:

"A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she enquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

Remember to put the glass down."

Arilx