Today is Lifeline’s Stress Down Day. This annual event always has inspired me. Instead of STRESSING OUT, it calls on us to STRESS DOWN. It is a message of even greater importance this year – 2020 – because even those of us who usually manage our stress very well are challenged by this COVID-19 crisis.

We find ourselves stressed by

• the uncertainty and unpredictability of these times,
• the social isolation,
• the often groundhog day to day experience,
• the constant negative messages from the media and its inability (or unwillingness) to tell the many good news stories,
• the working from home and home schooling at the same time,
• the fear, as older people, being in that vulnerable group, that we could become infected as we shop,
• the concern about our jobs, our mortgages, our businesses,
• the selfishness of people who won’t do the right thing,

and we could go on and on.

All of this creates a stress that none of us want, but too often find difficult to escape from. I really find these words of Eckhardt Tolle very relevant at the moment. If we can find a way to accept being HERE, instead of yearning to be THERE, we not only will beat this “thing” more quickly, but we will also be able to STRESS DOWN as Lifeline calls on us to be.