moving through
A few weeks ago in class, we had our weekly seminar to help prepare us to go out on fieldwork in January. That week's was with a counselor from campus to talk about managing stress. When I saw this on the syllabus, I almost rolled my eyes. Over the years I have come to know what my body needs under stress - if I need to be around people or to be alone, what type of music to listen to, what food to eat, etc. I prepped to listen to yet another discussion about mindfulness and deep breathing. Instead, I was enraptured the whole time, and even took notes on my laptop. One part in particular stuck out to me. The counselor talked about how, just like emotions, stress has a beginning, a middle and an end. And sometimes, stress gets stuck inside us. Then she had us imagine that (in "cave man days") we are running from a lion that is trying to eat us. We run and run and run, and finally make it to our friend's house. Our friend comes out, kills the lion, and then we fall into ...