April is Stress Awareness Month, a national effort sponsored by The Health Resource Network (HRN) to inform people about the dangers of stress, offer coping strategies and disprove harmful misconceptions about stress that are prevalent in our society.
Prominent writer Martin Boroson, author of One-Moment Meditation: Stillness for People on the Go, published an article yesterday on Huffington Post about “stresscalation”—the way in which we pass our stress to other people, often unwillingly. Boroson challenged readers to vow not to pass their stress on to others for one day, in honor of National Stress Awareness Day on April 16.
It’s no surprise—when you’re stressed, the people around you suffer as well. Your bad day becomes someone else’s bad day which you might not even realize because you’re too stressed to notice. Boroson’s “stop stress vow” encourages people to take responsibility for their stress and find a healthy way to dispel it, rather than passing it on to someone else.
As caregivers, we experience high volumes of stress. Many of us caring for an elderly relative or friend are also juggling full-time careers and caring for own children. Being conscious of this stress and working to find effective coping strategies to manage the stress is important to a caregivers’ wellbeing. This year, the team at FirstLight encourages all of you to “take the vow” and help the world become a little more stress-free.