The Health Chronicles: A Week Driven by Glimmers
How a Simple Concept Help Me Thrive in Stressful Situations
Earlier this week, I wrote an article about the concept of glimmers. I won’t elaborate on them too much here, but basically think of things that happen throughout your day and life that give you a good tingly feeling. It can be anything from getting a dream job you were hoping for to the first sip of hot tea on a cool Sunday morning, They come in all shapes and sizes.
This week, I allowed glimmers to continue to drive my way of thinking during more than a handful of stressful situations. While dealing with a phone snafu this week, there were definitely things happening that were 100% triggers for me. Honestly at another point in my life, I would have probably used them as an excuse to get drunk and “relieve” myself of the stress. But, during the trying times, I kept telling myself that the pain now will be a net positive moving forward. Hopefully, the bulk of those painful interactions are done, and I can now move forward.
Then, there was a situation at work yesterday that absolutely was not only a trigger, but something that could have completely thrown the entire day out of sync. Without getting into too many details, a massive breach happened procedurally, and it initially did have me freaked out. Thankfully, with some serendipitous cancellations and the calm demeanor of the clients I was dealing with, the situation was resolved. Plus, I took the liberty of highlighting plenty of small glimmers happening throughout that day. What could have been a massively chaotic day ended up being a somewhat fun, albeit incredibly busy day at work.
How we react to stress and triggers can often dictate how long they effect us. This is not to downplay the very real long term effects of incredibly triggering situations that happen in life. It’s not healthy to just brush traumas under the rug and pretend they aren’t happening. But when it comes to how we deal with daily stress, the ways in which we handle them go a long way towards our own mental wellbeing.
I have always said that two people yelling in a room rarely get anything done. I think the same can be said of two people who are clearly irritated. I have always tried to be a calming presence even in stressful situations, and with the way that I am trying to focus on glimmers rather than ruminating on triggers, that line of thinking continues to be cemented in my brain.
We can’t dictate how the world chooses to perceive us or how people interact with us, but we can choose how we respond. In most situations, we are given a reasonable variance of choices in how to react. When I focused on glimmers this week, I think it helped the way I responded to stressful situations. I know it won’t always work moving forward, but I did notice a tangible difference, which is something to be proud of.
And now, some check-ins. Since some phone data did not switch over when I changed phones (long story lol), there aren’t as many data points this week. But I do have a couple that are important!
Did I drink this week? No, and like I said that’s no small feat. There were plenty of triggering situations that might have led me to imbibe in the past.
Did I have junk food? Yes. No need to really elaborate. I just need to find time to do more prep cooking.
Average Walking Distance: 4.4 miles a day. Going to do more walking today. It looks wet outside but it’s not cold, and I need to do some grocery shopping anyway.
Average sleep time: 7 hours and 4 minutes! Just over 7 hours again, and that was with me staying up late last night. If I can find a way to get to sleep sooner after getting home from work, we can do some real numbers here.
That’s all for this week, continue to find the glimmers in a world hellbent on triggering us 24/7. They’re a lot easier to find than you might think.
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