The Beneficial Overspill of Mastering Stress

The beneficial overspill of mastering stress.

Those of you who are blessed enough to have a dream commute each day ought to be hailed genius. Your intuitive decision making on location and mode of transport is to be celebrated.

I still haven’t managed to master my commute. Tube journeys are squashed and uncomfortable, and then I’m to dash from platform to platform if the next driver has decided to take a jolly jaunt on route. My contingency, an hour long bus ride, whilst providing a seat faces multiple diversions and delays. This often means the journey takes 90 minutes and without warning the driver will terminate the journey in order to get back to the depot on time leaving passengers to fend for themselves off the beaten track. Not a great start to the day.

Knowing the likelihood of the ‘rug being pulled from under’ my smooth journey at any point has often meant me being fraught with underlying stress, and when things do go wrong I have reacted in a less than favourable manner, to say the least. This stressed and disgruntled state of mind has stayed with me through to midday on occasion, so I can only guess the words and phrases used by my colleagues to describe my. Not a great impression to create.

I recently completed the Dale Carnegie Skills for Success programme, and on the final session I spoke of the benefits I have gained and they were numerous. However yesterdays commute really demonstrated just how far reaching the benefits of managing my stress and worry are.

At just beyond the half-way point of my journey to work the driver politely announced he would be terminating the journey. “You can just follow this road until you get close to Marble Arch and then ask somebody from there if you don’t know your way around” was his solution for the tourist groups who had deliberately set out early to explore this wonderful city of ours. For the rest of us? “You know this can happen.” Helpful!

Usually at this announcement my knee-jerk reaction would be to openly express my disappointment, frustration and anger vigorously however on this occasion I simply listened, accepted and began my long walk toward the office. Each attempt to catch another bus failed however I kept moving in the direction of Covent Garden and kept my thoughts positive and productive. Not only was I calm when I arrived at work I had also come up with a couple of new ideas I couldn’t wait to test out so I was in fact fairly fired up and raring to go. What a difference! My next goal is to apply this more often when faced with challenges that are beyond my control but can often be costly in terms of my wellbeing.

I look forward to letting you know how it goes. Enjoy your day.

Angelina Foden