A little kindness when you’re stressed

So it’s the start of a new week and who knows what’s in store for us?

Whether it’s going to be work related, or it’s got to do with family or friends, school, or anything else in our personal lives, I’m sure we’re all expecting to feel stressed about something or other sometime this week.

Since stress is part and parcel of our lives, we asked around here in T.Ware to find out what people do to get around it, and the list started like this:

But soon, the questioning came to a little halt when I discovered George Saunders’ advice to graduates of Syracuse University in 2013. The essence of his speech? Here’s something I know to be true, although it’s a little corny, and I don’t quite know what to do with it: What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

In particular, this stood out for me:

“We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want to be.”

In the same vein, when we get stressed out by whatever curve ball life throws at us and we receive help from others, that’s when we realize how much of a social creature man is, and we appreciate others more.

And suddenly a thought came to me. Instead of just having others help us when we’re stressed, perhaps we could pay it forward by being kind to someone else when we feel stressed. By shifting our point of focus away from ourselves, would we not be taking some weight off not only our own shoulders, but of another person’s too?

We’re really looking forward to trying this potential stress reliever out, especially when we’re in the office and there aren’t any burgers+milkshakes/basketball courts/kitchens/pets around for us to carry out our usual routines above. (We’ve got the massage covered though, thanks to our T.Jackets!)

Give ‘A little kindness when you’re stressed’ a try, and let us know how it works out for you. (we hope it turns out well!) Have a good week ahead!

x
T.Ware