Is there a Difference between Reducing Stress and Giving Up?

Everybody knows that stress can kill yet many of us either don’t wish to or do not know how to reduce it.  Sometimes the attempts that some of us make to reduce our stress are often viewed by others as a form of quitting.  They say we refused to fight hard enough for something and just do not wish to take into consideration that maybe we have seen it best for us to close out that chapter and move on.  Is it because they really care or is it because they are still trying to make us live our lives as they live theirs?  No one will truly ever know because no one has the ability to tell what is truly in the hearts and minds of man, we can only make educated guesses based on our personal experiences of observation and discovery through the years.

In order for many to reduce their stress, you have to make up your mind that you are only going to stress over the things that you can control and not stress over those things that you cannot.  If you do this, you are guaranteed to reduce your stress level tremendously and feel much better about who you are but just don’t be surprised that some, even those closest to you, may just accuse you of giving up, quitting or simply not caring.  You know that it is very possible to not stress over something and still care and contrary to what they may want you to think, those who complain that you have given up know that as well.  So please do not fall for that old trick of the “you don’t care” scheme because it is just that.  It’s a scheme to get you to react in the way that they believe you should instead of respecting that you know best what is better for you and trusting that you would do that. 

There really is a difference between reducing stress and giving up even though they appear to be so close that they may blend together every now and again.  The major difference is when you reduce your stress, not only does your blood pressure drop but so does your heart rate and the weight that each of us carries around every day.  You notice a lighter happier you and even you cannot sometimes explain it.  Giving up has an opposite effect upon us.  Contrary to what we wish to believe any unfinished business will weigh heavily upon us and that weight will never go away until that business is finished.  The longer we go without completing a task for which we feel obligated to do the longer everything else after that point never seems to feel right.  We feel off-track all day and every day and if it has been a lot of time past, we can’t remember what we needed to do to correct it but make no mistake, something will happen in our lives that will give us a chance to fix this and that is when we must choose for ourselves if fixing it is what we really wish to do.  We know we need to because we have just spent the last few minutes, hours, days, months and years trudging through life with no rudder and seemingly no destination.  To fix it simply ask for forgiveness if forgiveness is required, make your apologies if an apology is warranted and then always forgive yourself because sometimes we can be our most harshest critic and our toughest opponent.