Oh how I want to scream. I’m frustrated and feel all over the place. Everywhere I turn there seems to be stressors at the moment. Work is insane. While I am so very thankful that I have kept my job, we are short staffed. Even our typically most reliable suppliers are unable to deliver on time due to their own staffing issues. Everyone I know seems to be beyond stressed and just so done with this damned year. I know I am. I’m tired of all of the discord going on in the world. Every day is something crazier. Honestly if I was watching this show play out as if it was some kind of theater, I would have walked out and requested my money back. Strange monoliths, the existence (allegedly) of aliens, a global pandemic, racism, riots, murder hornets, the presidential race, the outcome of the presidential race, toilet paper outages, maskers vs anti maskers. The world is loud and screaming at the highest possible volume on a daily basis. I want to scream too.
A lifetime ago, I was speaking to a friend about stress. She gave me her own little life tip and while I have never tried this, she called it the most cathartic thing she had ever done. She was going through a divorce. The divorce was not amicable and while she was in therapy she was still having a hard time coping. At the highest point of her stress, she went to the local thrift store. She purchased a complete set of dishes for about a dollar. She went into her garage and threw every single dish as hard as she could at the ground, the wall, the ceiling. She screamed and cried and broke every single one of those dishes. When she was done she looked at all of those broken dishes and thought about how they represented so many things in her life. They represented her broken home, the loss of her partner, the stress of the divorce, the sadness in her children and her inability to do anything about it, the new bills, the stark and sudden realization that she had to do everything on her own and every other problem that she had at that moment. It was overwhelming. She sat down amidst the mess and ugly cried hard. When she was completely spent, she cleaned up the mess and stepped out into the fresh air. She breathed in deeply and felt better than she had in months. During the rest of the divorce she had stress, and she had sadness but all of it seemed manageable after that.
Now then I am not advocating for you to visit your local thrift store, purchase dishes and then violently put an end to them. There are better and less violent ways. Don’t get me wrong dear reader, there are times I have longed for this kind of relief. I’ve pictured myself breaking every plate. I’ve put myself in that garage even if it was only mentally. I’ve ugly cried and sobbed this year. I’ve been frustrated about the unfairness of everything for everyone. I used to turn to cigarettes. Now I turn to exercise. What is your release?