I have started a new job recently and in this position I’ve had moments that were rather intense. Throughout my life I have pretty much avoided any responsibility and all the jobs I had in the past were essentially an easy ride for me. I did observe the people who would get stressed in their jobs and I could not relate or understand how you get to such a point.
In this new job, however, my understanding expanded and I have had the moments where it seemed like I was on the edge of breaking down because of the workload and the pressure to get things done. Despite these moments being tough I found that they are also an opportunity to expand and break the limitations I had about what is possible. Essentially what I have learned is that when those intense moments come there is no time for thinking, no time for distraction and all the focus and attentions must be absolutely here on the task. I was satisfied with myself after being able to manage these moments and each time when the same moments with same intensity came I was able to find my stability more quickly and be more effective.
So I am glad that I am finally learning what it means to focus myself on something so completely and where you get things done for real. It took me a long time to get to this point because I resisted change a lot, I was always fearing and anticipating the worst, holding also the belief that I require more and more preparation to start something without realizing that there is only so much you can prepare and that without real application of the knowledge there is no improvement possible.
In this little journey I found that there are many factors which determine how we will handle stress and most are within our ability to direct and perfect ourselves within yet what I also found is that the system is sometimes too demanding thus pushing individuals too hard without considering their needs and abilities.
I have seen people being constantly under stress and where that stress is accumulating from day to day leading to undesirable consequences. In this blog I would like to note one important factor I have noticed which revels quite accurately that there are problems. And that is SLEEP patterns. This seems to be a prevalent problem in our current work environment. I have spoken to many people and it is obvious that it’s a big issue which is not addressed and given the significance it deserves. When I started working in my new position I have worked very long hours but at the same time I noticed that I also required longer sleeping hours to “digest” all the new information so to speak and it worked very well where the next day I would wake up with a clear mind ready to take the new challenges of the day. When this cycle is disturbed the challenges become burdens which accumulate and may lead to mental and physical exhaustion. Here are some very supportive blogs on this subject for anyone having sleep issues:
Oh! Good night’s rest, Good night’s rest…wherefore art thou Good night’s rest
Sleeping: Trying to fight a losing battle
To Sleep or Not to Sleep – the Dilemma with Tiredness
When I want to Sleep my problems away – yet my problems keep me Awake…
It’s unfortunate that the system we live in sometimes places unreasonable demands by forcing us, through the fear of survival, to keep working and producing results without considering simple, common sense needs of the individuals. So by doing the best we can in our individual lives we also have to pay attention and seek bigger solutions that would challenge the current system to change it into one that considers real physical needs of all humans as well as animals and plants. I support the movement of “Living Income Guaranteed” which addresses these issues by providing practical solutions to our sleepless nights.
More on Stress:
Is it Possible For Stress to be Constructive?
I have spent the last week with a being within whom I observed the pattern of being absolutely resistant to admit any mistake to the extreme where he can argue endlessly justifying his righteousness. So I keep asking myself where in my world and reality I am doing the same as this point is so clearly and so intensely right here in my face. So by observing him and all the ways in how this pattern plays out I was studying the nature of reactions and justifications behind it. One thing I can clearly identify is the existing character of “I know better” or “I can’t be wrong” where within this main justifications to support the character is 
Ok so this point came up today where I have seen how within communication with my work colleagues we are just daydreaming basically where we imagine/fantasize about what we would like to do instead of actually making practical investigation and actually taking practical steps to achieve our goals. What we do is we look at people that have higher positions/higher incomes and we imagine ourselves being in those positions and how cool it would be to be where they are. From here the usual pattern is to enter the fantasy phase creating different scenarios of how we could become more influential/have higher income jobs. So I have seen today how actually desperate that all is and how stupidly that sounds and where within that I was angered with myself for allowing myself to exist in this state of basically giving up on myself and being at peace about the position I am where there is no actual consideration about reality and how we can move ourselves to become what we want to become. In that moment of seeing where I was participating I started to bring the fantasizing minds back to reality and looking physically/practically at the possibilities/steps we could take to make our dreams a reality. This wasn’t easy as the minds where constantly turning/directing the reality into imaginations that have no possibility to be manifested in our lives. So within that I saw that the mind has a point of hopelessness when seeing the actual road that has to be walked in order to actually expand and grow in living. Yet at the same time it was intriguing and motivational for all of us to consider the reality and self-honestly look at where we are and what we can do to make the change. There was certainly lack of clarity about knowing what one actually wants to do and what one could do based on the accumulated skills throughout one’s life.
Arvydas' Journey to Life 