I've started taking a lunchtime meditative yoga class - it's focused on breathing, and the necessity of being present. It's done wonders for my work stress. Interestingly, when I say that, some people think it's actually alleviating that stress, as though it simply disappears.
So they try it, meditative yoga, and then they come to me all pissed off and ranting about how it was just breathing and stretching and what the hell was I doing that it made all my stress go away, and that pile of work was still sitting on their desk and the deadlines didn't go away and, and, and....
And I just sigh, take a measured breath in, release it in stages and look at them with a level eye. "It doesn't make the stress disappear. It makes the stress easier to deal with" I say as I walk away. There's no arguing with those people.
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Debate is a beautiful thing. It's organic, growing in strange and uneven ways, expanding into the space it's given at first then bursting through the seams and taking over whole worlds. It can leave understanding and blood in its wake.
It's equally exhilarating and difficult to debate someone you know socially. There comes a point, however, when it's also extremely draining, and that's when you have to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and with no force, and excuse yourself from the debate.
There are a great many people with whom I agree to disagree on a great many topics. Some of those people I love very dearly. Some of them are simply acquaintances. But none of it keeps me up at night. Those people hold no malice for me. So deep breaths, that's all.
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There are only so many times that you can look around your office and think "wow, you people have no clue." It's difficult to be the person in your job and know that the people you're explaining the project to have no earthly clue what words are coming out of your mouth. It's easier to speak Greek than it is to speak Tech sometimes.
You can probably guess what I'm going to say next... ;)
Yup. Breathe.
It really is everything.
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