![]() ![]() Like a good traffic accident on the freeway, the more sensational they make TV news (and repeat it over and over), the more you are drawn to it. You can read what is of interest and skim the rest, then put it away. I don't advocate that you tune completely out of local or national news, but I do recommend less psychologically invasive methods of obtaining that news: The internet or newspapers. If we were meant to take it all on, we would have been hardwired to share all our human experiences as a collective. Don't get me wrong, it's a terrible thing, but as humans beings we can only take on so much misfortune and heartbreak which is not our own. And there you are, watching that fire or hearing it in the background and the subsequent stories of people who lost everything. If you live in Phoenix, an apartment fire in Miami doesn't have a darn thing to do with your everyday life but the TV makes you feel that it does. On TV news, the most unimportant of stories takes on an urgency that is always unwarranted. TV news, even when on in the background while you cook dinner or help the kids with their homework is an insidious stress inducer. If you are trying to control your stress level, limit your intake of television news. TV News: Always urgent, seldom important. Limit your intake at the depression fountain!īreaking News! This just in! Explosive story! Disaster looms while catastrophe strikes! Don't forget that they are muddling through the same issues as you! So, what can we do to help ourselves through this? I have some tips that will help you cope with the disquiet, and cope with the disquiet of your clients. And not only are you managers out of sorts, but your clients, your vendors, your people and your family are all out of sorts with no end in sight: Anxiety is the new reality. This additional national stress may be more than managers, and indeed all of us, are likely prepared to handle. Successful managers have mechanisms to help them cope with normal work stress. Not that managers are different from everyone else, but they do deal with far more negativity than most "normal" jobs, and that's in good times. And as I lay awake I began thinking about how managers will cope with this additional stress. And I think a lot of you have been feeling the same. It's a helpless feeling, and I realized I hadn't felt like this since 9/11 (not to say our current fiscal problems are equal to the human tragedy we experienced in 9/11, but the malaise that followed). Of course it is as a direct result of the economic meltdown and my resultant frustration over our national politics in general. Just out of sorts in general, and it's affecting much of my normal cheery persona. I don't mean laying-on-the-ground depressed, I mean a continual sense of unease as I go about my daily life. How, uncharacteristically, I am finding myself depressed these days. I thought about how my fuse seems to be shorter than normal. I'm writing because when you are awake in the middle of the night for extended periods of time, you have a grand opportunity to think. But I'm not writing to complain about my sleeping habits. ![]() For me, that's about functional for, oh, 2-3 weeks at a time. This means four good hours of sleep, then 2 lousy ones on the other end. Last night, I was awake between 2am and 4am. 03 Sleepless in (or, near) Seattle By Julie Like many of you out there, I suffer from bouts of insomnia. ![]()
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