Blessed

[Eamonn]

Yesterday I presented a lesson on Dealing With Stress.

Working in a jail is very stressful and the stresses take their toll on the people who work within the razor topped fences.

Part of the lesson plan deals with bad ways of dealing with stress.

On my way home I got to thinking about how I deal with my own stress.

I'm not an expert in this kind of thing but even still I think that I know me better than anyone else.

I'm very aware that there are stress-ors out there and from the time the electronic gate clangs shut, early in the morning till I get to get out I'm under stress.

Jails are not as a rule very quite places. Inmates tend to want to be heard and will increase the volume until someone, even the person standing right next to them seems to be listening and getting something from what is being yelled. The truth is that he isn't listening and in not getting anything, all he is doing is working on what he is going to yell back.

The radio strapped to my hip never shuts up and the announcements over head just keep coming.

I think that I'm not taking that much notice but for my own safety and well being I don't dare block any of it out. For the safety and well being of others I need to be ready to respond.

I really don't say much at home about what goes on at work.

Days are planned to be very much the same, it's only when things go wrong that there's anything to talk about and I don't want my wife to spend her day worrying over me.

The guys at work never want to come off seeming soft so as a way of defense things become a joke. -Until someone gets hurt.

I'm a very sociable type of person. I like people and a lot of people seem to like and be able to get along with me.

Still I very much like my time alone away from everyone.

I enjoy my drives to and from work. Just me and NPR on the radio. Reports of whats happening in places in the world that I very often have never heard of before and know I'll never visit.

As I was thinking of how I dealt with my own stress it came to me that maybe unknowingly? I have built my life around dealing with it.

While I'm from a big city. (London.) And I still enjoy visiting big cities full of people and the action that can be found there.

I chose to live out in the sticks. -I don't miss the hustle and bustle of the big city at all.

About a month back I had my GPS set wrongly and rather than quickest time I had shortest distance. The darn thing brought me through every back road in Toronto. Taxis pulled out from no where, pedestrians seemed not to know that walking out in front of lost Englishmen can be hazardous to their health and Toronto is loaded full of Kamikaze bicyclists. It was like driving down the Kings Road, Chelsea after a Chelsea Soccer home game.

For me it was 90 minutes of sheer hell. - I swore that I'd never live in a big city ever, for as long as I might live.

A couple of years back, I took up gardening.

I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. Only that I get to play in the dirt. Look at some wonderful magazines and enjoy bring in bunches of cut flowers for my wife or just like the hunter home from the hunt I come in basking with pride because I've just reaped yet another zucchini or can boast that I grew the herbs in the sauce.

I have a big yard. I mow about seven acres. This year I went wild and bought myself a John Deere 72 inch zero-turn mower. - I have some really nice cars, but this mower is my pride and joy. A top speed of 15 MPH.

The yard takes about three hours to mow. Three hours of me being alone with no interruptions, just me, the mower and the smell of cut grass.

Everyday I take my three dogs out for their hike, we cover about 3 -5 miles depending on my mood and what the weather is like.

Each dog has his or her own character and watching them do their own thing makes me smile. I also get to be part of the seasons and part of the nature that's all around me. Watching the robins in spring, the groundhogs poke their heads up from their holes in the summer or the snow geese in the corn fields.

I moan and complain about having to dress for the weather before I take them out, but we never miss a day. We have spots where we can sit down and they can enjoy a pet from me. Along the way they are sometimes treated to an Irish folk song, but they never seem that impressed with my singing, only it beats my off key whistling!

I do enjoy my friends and spending time with people that I like and care for.

So when it comes to dealing with my own Stress?

I think how lucky and blessed I really am.

Eamonn.

[Second Class]

Eamonn, it is really hard to read a long post with no white space. I'll give it a go now.

All the best.

=========================================================

Eamonn's post with spaces.

 

 

 

Yesterday I presented a lesson on Dealing With Stress.

Working in a jail is very stressful and the stresses take their toll on the people who work within the razor topped fences.

 

Part of the lesson plan deals with bad ways of dealing with stress.

On my way home I got to thinking about how I deal with my own stress.

 

I'm not an expert in this kind of thing but even still I think that I know me better than anyone else.

 

I'm very aware that there are stress-ors out there and from the time the electronic gate clangs shut, early in the morning till I get to get out I'm under stress.

 

Jails are not as a rule very quite places. Inmates tend to want to be heard and will increase the volume until someone, even the person standing right next to them seems to be listening and getting something from what is being yelled. The truth is that he isn't listening and in not getting anything, all he is doing is working on what he is going to yell back.

 

The radio strapped to my hip never shuts up and the announcements over head just keep coming.

I think that I'm not taking that much notice but for my own safety and well being I don't dare block any of it out. For the safety and well being of others I need to be ready to respond.

 

I really don't say much at home about what goes on at work.

Days are planned to be very much the same, it's only when things go wrong that there's anything to talk about and I don't want my wife to spend her day worrying over me.

 

The guys at work never want to come off seeming soft so as a way of defense things become a joke. -Until someone gets hurt.

 

I'm a very sociable type of person. I like people and a lot of people seem to like and be able to get along with me.

 

Still I very much like my time alone away from everyone.

 

I enjoy my drives to and from work. Just me and NPR on the radio. Reports of whats happening in places in the world that I very often have never heard of before and know I'll never visit.

 

As I was thinking of how I dealt with my own stress it came to me that maybe unknowingly? I have built my life around dealing with it.

 

While I'm from a big city. (London.) And I still enjoy visiting big cities full of people and the action that can be found there.

 

I chose to live out in the sticks. -I don't miss the hustle and bustle of the big city at all.

 

About a month back I had my GPS set wrongly and rather than quickest time I had shortest distance. The darn thing brought me through every back road in Toronto. Taxis pulled out from no where, pedestrians seemed not to know that walking out in front of lost Englishmen can be hazardous to their health and Toronto is loaded full of Kamikaze bicyclists. It was like driving down the Kings Road, Chelsea after a Chelsea Soccer home game.

 

For me it was 90 minutes of sheer hell. - I swore that I'd never live in a big city ever, for as long as I might live.

A couple of years back, I took up gardening.

 

I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. Only that I get to play in the dirt. Look at some wonderful magazines and enjoy bring in bunches of cut flowers for my wife or just like the hunter home from the hunt I come in basking with pride because I've just reaped yet another zucchini or can boast that I grew the herbs in the sauce.

 

I have a big yard. I mow about seven acres. This year I went wild and bought myself a John Deere 72 inch zero-turn mower. - I have some really nice cars, but this mower is my pride and joy. A top speed of 15 MPH.

 

The yard takes about three hours to mow. Three hours of me being alone with no interruptions, just me, the mower and the smell of cut grass.

 

Everyday I take my three dogs out for their hike, we cover about 3 -5 miles depending on my mood and what the weather is like.

 

Each dog has his or her own character and watching them do their own thing makes me smile. I also get to be part of the seasons and part of the nature that's all around me. Watching the robins in spring, the groundhogs poke their heads up from their holes in the summer or the snow geese in the corn fields.

I moan and complain about having to dress for the weather before I take them out, but we never miss a day. We have spots where we can sit down and they can enjoy a pet from me. Along the way they are sometimes treated to an Irish folk song, but they never seem that impressed with my singing, only it beats my off key whistling!

 

I do enjoy my friends and spending time with people that I like and care for.

 

So when it comes to dealing with my own Stress?

 

I think how lucky and blessed I really am.

 

Eamonn.

admin | IP: Logged

spin-off new thread

[Papadaddy]

My cure for stress will be to retire as soon as possible...less than 2 years to go. I pray that I live long enough to see it. It's really questionable. I have just reached the point where I am no longer going to put up with 50-something year old "adults" who act like kindergarteners and are technically incompetent. Coupled with a management structure who won't let you do anything about it, and i'm done. I am looking for lake property to retire to, where I can ignore politics, move my assets to safe harbor away from the "wealth redistributing" liberals, and live out my life in peace, self sufficient, as any self-respecting human being would do. FTW.

[ntrog8r]

Confined to where my work takes me, I often feel the same. Trapped in the chaos of "civilization". Traffic, noise, lights, the clock, something critical always hanging in the balance.

 

There came a point where I felt my internal self was on the same pace as the world around me. A few years ago I decided to keep a "nature journal". Nothing really; a Moleskine plain paper notebook with pretty terrible sketches and a few written entries. The first page still has my intent - to reconnect and find calm.

 

That led to more drawing (sketching really), bird feeders (and bird watching), gardening, and getting up even earlier to have "alone time" to write/draw. Over time it led to me changing the way I take notes and record details everywhere - home, work, hobbies. It allowed me to focus.

 

I've always "run away to the wilderness" at every opportunity. I've had the chance to "visit" large cities all over the world; some things never change. But I've also found the simple, the natural, and the calming in all those places, too. Finding respite from the demands of the job and the bustle of cramped populations has been critical to my stress relief and sanity.

 

I thank Scouting for showing me that escape so many years ago. It was backpacking and camping where I first learned I could "get away from it all". Though I'd grown up hunting, it was Scouting where I first learned to appreciate just being in the woods. Without a SM that that gently guided us all to be more than we would have been and tightly knit Patrols that got outside I don't know that I'd have been able to find my stress relief so easily. Scouting showed me the way, journaling allows me to focus.

[packsaddle]

We are indeed blessed. I know persons for whom the greatest stress is finding out that a certain style of garment is out of stock for the another week. I don't minimize things like that because that is basically what we've fought and died for, right? The freedom and comfort of secure lives devoted to all the pleasant things our society has at its convenience? And the freedom to complain about things that really are inconsequential compared to what people in other places endure.

 

Eamonn, you ,especially, really do have an occupation which contains serious stress. But you are in that by choice. With the stroke of a pen, you could shed that stress. Even our volunteer armed forces who are risking and occasionally paying with their lives, do this by their choice. But I'll also give them the credit due for surviving seriously stressful times and actions.

 

Otherwise, there aren't many of the rest of us in these threads who have even the remotest idea of what real stress is, or of what life is capable of surviving.

 

"Bok said he was captured by the raiders and, along with two little girls, was placed on a donkey and carted north. "The girls were crying, and when they did not stop after being told to do so, a soldier pulled out his pistol and shot one of them," he said. "The other girl kept crying, and then he shot her."

 

Bok was taken to Kirio, he said, where he was given to an Arab man, who presented him to the entire household. They all beat him."

 

"Women and children abducted in slave raids are roped by the neck or strapped to animals and then marched north. Along the way, many women and girls are repeatedly gang-raped. Children who will not be silent are shot on the spot. In the north, slaves are either kept by individual militia soldiers or sold in markets. Boys work as livestock herders, forced to sleep with the animals they care for.

 

"Some who try to escape have their Achilles tendons cut to hamper their ability to run. Masters typically use women and girls as domestics and concubines, cleaning by day and serving the master sexually by night."

 

"Young black, boy slaves are repeatedly gang-raped by their Arab masters. While previous reports on slavery have focused mainly on the gang-rape of female slaves, sociologist and investigative reporter, Maria Sliwa received testimony from numerous boy victims of rape."

 

"This type of sex is very strange to us," said recently redeemed slave Deng Deng. "Many times during rape boys would cry so loudly that the Arabs would stuff rags in their mouths so they could not be heard. I witnessed this often. If you refuse [sex], sometimes they would shoot you."

 

I am sincerely thankful that we have the luxury of stuffing our faces while complaining about back-ordered clothing or office politics, and then dropping off to sleep in front of a televised football game.

[Eagle732]

"I really don't say much at home about what goes on at work."

 

I understand that Eamonn, 30+ years in a large metro fire department and I never talked about what happened at work and my family knew better than to ask.

Ignorance is bliss.

And yes when you see the suffering of others you are constantly reminded that we are blessed.

[Eamonn]

packsaddle

I hope I didn't come off as seeming like I was complaining.

I both like and enjoy my job.

A big part of it for me is because everything is so new, so different.

I'm also one of the few who don't think that I'm under-paid or in any way hard done by.

 

Second Class - Thank you.

The post wasn't to be as long as it turned out being.

 

Papadaddy,

One of the problems I sometimes have is understanding some of the younger guys at work.

Most if not all of these guys are really nice guys when I deal with them one on one. Sadly when they group together it seems that they want to mess around and act like teenagers.

This does make my job of training groups of them difficult.

Many of these guys have served in the military and done tours in combat zones.They face all the problems that people who are just starting out in life face.

Understanding them, what they have been through and are going through helps me be a little more understanding.

These are tough times for management. Budgets have been cut. Every group thinks that they are special and can't be upset.

At times the union is seen as going out of it's way to protect and look after the losers. I don't envy managements job.

 

I'm too young to have been around when London was taking everything that Germany could throw at it during the blitz.

From all accounts even though things were bad, building were being hit nightly and people were being hurt and killed.

The spirit of the people remained strong and Londoners out of necessity had to work together and rely on each other.

While maybe the idea of the Cheerful Cockney is a little overplayed?

At work I take great comfort that should the situation arise the guys I work with will step up to the plate.

We had a training the other day for our Special Response Teams.

I as a Hostage Negotiator had to go and try and talk to a hostage taker who had in the scenario taken a staff member hostage.

It was a face to face negotiation.

To get to the bad guy I was placed in the "Stack". Surrounded by our very heavily armed CERT (Corrections Emergency Response Team) While I couldn't see and didn't know where our sharp shooters were. I knew that they were out there and ready to take the shot if things went south. - I had my little vest on and a bull horn!

 

This knowing that I have to count on these guys, knowing that they are well trained and ready to do what ever it might take to protect little old me!

Does make me appreciate these guys a lot and when it comes to them giving me a hard time during training's? I don't get as upset.

 

Eamonn

 

 

 

[Deaf Scouter]

Second Class.. THANK YOU!! (I tend to skip when there are no spaces cuz I just can't seem to read it)

 

As for stress, we all have our ways of dealing with it. I like my time alone even though I can be quite social. Being a city gal, born and raised, I can say the country suits me more too. I don't miss the city life at all.

 

But I do have to wonder though if ignorance is bliss or holding it all in is best. I think having support groups and sharing is important as its a way to relieve stress that can build up over time. Stress has a way of becoming tension in one's body that cause simple problems later. For me it all settled in my back to headaahes and stiff necks.