What's stress got to do with it?

Raise your hand if you’ve done any of the following in the past week: 

a.       Brought your daughter 30 minutes late to her last soccer game of the season because you had the time written down wrong
b.      Had a flat tire because you forgot that your mechanic told you the back ones needed replaced…SOON
c.       Had a sibling tell you that for the past six months you have been under the mistaken impression that you’re a whole year older than you really are
d.      Forgot to leave your signed receipt for a meal at O’Charleys causing the waitress to run out into the parking lot to get the receipt from you.  Realize the next day that when you pulled the receipt out of your wallet to hand her, it must have been some other restaurant receipt because the O’Charleys merchant copy was still in your wallet. (Must have given them the customer copy because my bank account was debited appropriately.)
e.      All of the above

You know where this is going, right?

Yep, in the last week - the last week - I have done all of these.  Probably did more too - and then forgot about them. Is dementia setting in?  Gosh, I hope not.  I don’t think that it is either.  I think that sometimes stress simply wears us down by demands that we (and others) place upon ourselves.  I was getting ready to start a new job, trying to get the house in order, having contractors come in to give quotes on badly needed work, still dealing with the appliance store for my dishwasher (see previous blog post), taking my daughter to get some academic testing done, shuttling to soccer, school, 3 lunches with friends and one interview for my examiner.com column and whew - some things just escaped me.  Well, the age thing has been ongoing but I just found out last week that I was actually a year younger than I have been telling everyone (and myself) that I am since December.  My sister told me the truth and although it makes me happy that I'm a bit younger than I thought, it also makes me a little concerned.  Does that make sense?

So, now I know I have a bit of a - well, let’s call it a dilemma - I dislike the words issue or problem.  I have some stress (who doesn’t) and I need to eliminate it to free up some brain space.  One of the things that can really help is meditation.  Since I have trouble sitting in meditation, I love to walk and meditate.  I rarely listen to music or walk with another person.  I like to have that time to myself to clear my mind and just relax and breathe. 

Besides simply feeling better, now I have a ‘real’ reason to make myself meditate - clearing the mind and eliminating stress.  It’s important and it’s something I am going to do for myself before I forget something really important like turning off the stove or where I placed my keys or where I left my kids or when the next  big Macy’s Beauty Event is going to take place.  Important stuff !