Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Autism Stress

A friend sent this story and thoughtful words. I thought that how we all handle the Autism thing can be related to what is said here:

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter It depends on how long you try to hold it. 'If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

'In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. '

He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. '

'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. '

'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. ' 'Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull, Some have weird names , and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box


Dad

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great start to the day. Cheers dears

Sean said...

Thanks for the great share. Keep up the awesome work with your awesome kids.

Anna said...

Love the Pigeon/Statue metaphor! Be careful with descriptive and concrete metaphors like that around Asperger's folks...you could make us spew out drinks out in laughter. :)

~Aspiex2

A Bishops Wife said...

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. I so appreichiate the feed bac....especially now. I just dreaded school starting, all of my regular readers know that. LOL.

I just got home from work and Noddy and Niles are up fighting with each other already.

I will be back soon. I can not imagine having 6 on the spectrum.

Thank you again for the visit.

Anonymous said...

these are very wise words...thank you for sharing.