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Health & Fitness

Back to school - not back to stress!

      We’ve all seen it - the television commercial depicting a parent riding a shopping cart down the aisle of an office supply store with a look of pure bliss on his face – while the background music plays Andy Williams singing the Christmas song, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”  Many parents love having their children go back to school, appreciating the return to peace and quiet.

     But for some parents this time of year can be very stressful: changes in routine, possibly new schools, setting up carpools, buying supplies, planning lunches, helping with homework, and deciding just how much volunteering they will do. For most of us, this all takes place also on top of a full time job.  “Routines are changing and there are a lot of decisions, and that can be stressful,” remarks Maggie Macaulay, a parent educator and coach with the Whole Hearted Parenting program in a recent interview with the Miami Herald.

    Stress is not good for our health.  According to Elizabeth Scott, M.S., writing for about.com, stress can produce all sorts of physical symptoms, and even serious health problems.  She wrote, “It’s been estimated that as many as 90% of doctor’s visits are for symptoms that are at least partially stress-related!”

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     Yet, dealing with change doesn’t have to be difficult, stressful or harmful to our health.  Positivechangecoach.com emphasizes the importance of adjusting our thinking.  They give seven tips on how to deal with change including being grateful, choosing your attitude about each change and learning to relax more. 

     They advise, “Welcome change as an opportunity.  Find the benefit somewhere in the change.  There’s always a benefit and an opportunity.  Start by keeping a written record for three days.  Every day, note three things, large or small, that you are grateful for.  You will notice a more powerful attitude of anticipation growing.”

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     It’s amazing how a change in perspective can defuse frustration and stress. 

     One way that I have changed my thinking and found relief from the stress of change at the beginning of a new school year – is by looking for the best in everyone.  So many new impressions are made by the first contact with other parents, teachers and staff.  I have found it important to keep an open mind about everyone I meet and look for good qualities in them.  This has opened many friendships – even among people with whom I don’t have much in common.

     I have been amazed by the life of Mary Baker Eddy, and often inspired by her writing.  She founded a church, a publishing group and an international daily newspaper – she knew stress!  She also knew how to defeat it and its effects, by staying close to God.  In one of her books, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she wrote:  “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.”  When I have felt stressed, and ill as a result, following this advice has helped me feel calm and eased the physical symptoms.

        Liz Joynt Sandberg speaks of the resilience of parenthood that defuses stress in her humorously titled “Thinking about sending my 3-yr-old to college” Huffington Post blog.  Writing about the seemingly endless decisions to be made over our children’s education, she wrote, “We’re all in the same boat, on the same choppy water, parents.  And just like all of the other stuff we’ve had to figure out on the fly with our wits and will (and a spare granola bar for sustenance), we’ll probably find the right path for our families, at the right time, in the right place.  Everything is probably going to be okay.  And when it’s not, we’re going to figure out how to make it okay.  We’re parents.  That’s what we do.”

      You are not alone. As parents we’re all in this together.  Helping each other, expressing gratitude and watching how we think about ourselves and others, can help alleviate back-to-school stress and get us parents launched into a healthier school year.

 

Thomas (Tim) Mitchinson is a self-syndicated columnist writing on the relationship between thought, spirituality and health, and trends in that field.  He is also the media spokesman for Christian Science in Illinois

 

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