zebras don't get ulcers. they eat grass on wide open african plains, interrupted on a regular basis when lions decide they're up for a black & white treat, run for their lives, and if they are one of the fortunate who escape, they simply go back to eating grass as their heartrate returns to a normal resting rate. and zebras don't suffer from anxiety; they don't get ulcers. if they, of all creatures, can unwind after stressful events, why can't i?
i wish i were like a zebra in that regard. i wish i knew what it was like to feel my heart return to its resting rate. it's been so long since i've experienced the healthy letdown after stressful events. ever since some point, and i don't know what that point is, my stress has been compounding, building, ever increasing, and i've never blown off the steam. i don't know how. it's like it doesn't matter that i make a conscious decision to release it and let go; i do make that decision and give myself that permission but it's like my body physiologically cannot experience the letdown. i want that letdown and i'm craving it. HE created them to de-stress after seriously running for their lives. HE created me to de-stress after running for my own.
one thing i know is that one zebra's fellow herd-dwellers do not egg him on after he's run for his life; they do not ask him to run farther.
zebras weren't designed to get ulcers, and neither was i.
3 comments:
i like black and white things. This is one for the books sister.
i wish i could claim it as completely original... haha there is a book called 'why zebras don't get ulcers' by robert sapolsky. it's a book about stress and coping mechanisms... we were talking about it in one of my psych classes the other day. anyways, that's where that phrase came from, but it got me to thinking about the ways HE created us to to cope with stress. i haven't read the book at all, but the title simply provoked these thoughts of my own.
thanks for reading. :)
I remember hearing about stress-free zebras in a psych class awhile back and I always thought that was pretty awesome.
I know how it feels to be completely stressed out ALL the time. seriously, this last summer was the first time in my life since about the age of 10 that I was actually completely not stressed. (yes, I can remember being stressed out in the fourth grade!!)
how did I do it, you might ask. well, I actually went to see a counselor who helped me focus on ridding stress from my life. (granted, I'm sure that the fact that I wasn't in school helped a lot). first she had me keep a journal of my daily activities. then we looked at it together and picked out what things were causing me stress and worked on making them exist without causing me to worry about them.
then I did things that I had wanted to do for a long time that were for just ME, but I never "got around to it." I did things like take a yoga class for the relaxing factor, I painted, I played the flute again, I bought relaxing CDs that were really nice to read to. it seriously was the best summer of my life. =)
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