What if, when you're stuck, you could pop into The Word Store? You'd walk in and find shelves and drawers heavily laden with words of all sizes, manner and method. A system for cross-referencing would be a necessity. It would be a polyglot of an emporium. Assistance would be swift. You'd be welcome to scurry through or to linger for the day.
Words of pain, words of worth
Words of joy, shelves of mirth
The Word Store is there
It can help you prepare
A sonnet or a song
A letter, that's gone wrong
Adjectives and adverbs
Nouns, to help with your blurb
Words of laughter, books of care
The Word Store is beyond compare!
Stress can rob you of many things.
I'll complete this post by briefly discussing three of them.
1. Frivolity - A manner lacking seriousness. The ability to take a break and partake in some frivolity.
When you are stressed, everything may seem heavily-weighted with the woes of the world or those closer to home - closer at heart.
Your life may be imbued with a sense of seriousness that is excessive. When the work is done and it is time to play, you may find that you cannot spend a few moments doing something that seems to have no inherent value.
"Play is more than fun." - Stuart Brown
In this TED talk he explains why play is essential and how we establish the basis of human trust through play. He also points out that many people begin to lose the ability to play as they age.
Transform your stress and increase your play propensity. It works. I know this from experience.
2. Courage - The state of mind or quality of spirit that enables one to face danger, fear or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence and resolution.
Fear can rule your life or ruin your life. It can make you see danger in everything and everyone. Your mind gets so busy searching out the danger that it obliterates the ability to enjoy your life.
Courage is that ability to take risks. They may be little ones, like I did here, or bigger ones. The size and scope are totally coloured by your own experiences. What may constitute a big risk for you, may be small by someone else's standards.
Transform your stress and your risk-assessment meter improves.
3. Vulnerability - Open to censure or criticism.
In this case, the type of vulnerability I'm referring to is tied in to courage - the ability to take risks and be vulnerable, within limits. It is the showing and sharing of yourself, knowing that you may receive less-than-kind comments.
I thought this post was finished after my poetic offering. After engaging in a bit of frivolous fun, the words flowed and I was able to add more depth to this post:
Play, frivolity and laughter do serve a purpose. A very serious one. As stress is transformed, different chemicals are released and a different part of the brain - the pre-frontal cortex - is engaged. That means more flow - the brain does what it does best; classify, create, reason, solve, sort, etc.
Hi Marianna,
I love how you demonstrated some playing yourself at the beginning of this post with your word store 🙂
I don’t think I ever intentionally played in order to make myself more productive but I will give this a try and see if it is helpful (at bare minimum, it will be fun).
Dorlee,
Thanks, Dorlee.
Did you get a chance to watch the TED Talk?
Let me know how the fun time evolved into productive time, please.
I started to blog as a lark. It has now become a very productive occupation and I have made a lot of friends through it, including you.
Ramana,
That “lark” has benefitted a lot of people, including me. 🙂