Keeping calm under stress
Accidents attributed to stress are not caused by stress itself, but by the way people handle it. Stress is part of life. Sometimes, as in farming, many things must be done in a short time. And when people push themselves too hard or too far, accidents are more likely and feelings become hurt or damaged more easily.
To keep your cool under stress, do the following things:
- Recognize when your mind and concentration are slipping from the task you are doing. Stop and take a one or two-minute break. If possible get off the equipment and walk around it, looking the other direction from it while you do this. It may sound strange, but that short break from your work pressure will recharge you. You will get back at your task refreshed and less tense. The time it takes for that short break will be more than made up for in your productivity within the next while.
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- Realize when you’re getting nowhere at something and take a break from it. Some years ago a man who was taking my New Choices For Men program was trying to loosen a nut on a tractor wheel. He was getting nowhere. The more he tried the more frustrated he got and the less energy he had the next time he gave another yank. He then remembered “time outs”, which we taught in the group.
Time out means saying to someone, or even yourself at times, “I am getting tense and upset. I need to take a time out from this situation to take care of myself.”
That’s exactly what he did. He walked away from the tractor, sat on a nearby rock, had a cigarette and thought about anything except that tractor wheel. Then he came back to the tractor. He calmly and firmly put the wrench over the nut. And with a firm rather than frustrated burst of energy, he loosened it.
- Realize that the above idea also applies to relationships. The moment when you are all busy with farming pressures as a family is not the time to focus on things that are not directly relevant.
Sometimes, things that happened two weeks or a month ago may bother you right now, but they don’t need to be brought up right now. All families have frictions from time to time. But bringing up a contentious issue when everyone is already stressed out with spring work won’t be helpful.
Write the issue down in a note, as objectively and factually as possible. Then, put it in an envelope, and date the envelope, perhaps a week or so ahead, when you know the spring work pressures will have eased. Put it away where only you know it is. Then on the date you marked on it, open it. Read it. Review the situation and consider whether your feelings are still the same. Perhaps you have worked things out on your own and may decide to tear up the note. If not, re-read and perhaps rewrite the note, making your points more gentle and positive. If your feelings are still as strong as they were then, and if the issue is still as important, give the note to whomever it was meant for, whether it is your spouse, business partner, parent, adult child, brother or sister.
Stress from work is a big enough challenge without adding other issues that can be best dealt with later and perhaps differently. And often if you put some problems on the sidelines, as least temporarily, they take care of themselves.
