Many things in life are overrated. Tuition fees, ghosts, screaming matches, salad restaurants, frozen yogurt, and working out, among other things. I’m sure you have your own list of annoyances that get blown a bit out of proportion, but I think we can both agree that stress definitely makes that list. Stress is overrated. It’s too much, and, like a valley girl, it will give you a headache if you give it the time of day. I mean, really, who has the time? Because no amount of Excedrin can kill the stress monster.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been stressed. That was a rhetorical statement, obviously. I can’t see you. You can raise your hand if you want, you just might look a little curious. Better yet, if you already raised your hand, raise your other one and slap your left with your right. High five to you for following directions. If it makes you feel better, I raised a mental hand for myself. Stress feels like a constant sometimes in my life. And, honestly, I’m over it. There’s so many other things I’d rather use my mental energy to focus on.

For example, puppies, cookouts, vacation planning, pillow shopping, sleep schedules, hugs, dominating the summer cornhole tournaments, remembering where I hid my running shoes, and writing this blog. I’d also rather workout and choose to eat lunch at Chopt … on purpose. Despite the questionable concept for a restaurant. Never in my life have I felt more stressed ordering food. The menu is so tiny you can’t see it until you’re at the front of the line and the workers are pressuring you for your order and there’s always a million people and I don’t understand.

Climbing back out of that rabbit hole, does anyone like to be stressed? I work well under pressure, but pressure and stress are different. Stress is self-inflicted. Pressure is kindly given to you by someone else and is out of your control. Speaking of control, most of my stress anyways seems to stem from that fun little devil of a concept. It’s nice to know what’s going on and feel like you have some semblance of a grip on the outcome. Take that away though, and wow do things get weird.

But enough about me! You get stressed, I get stressed, dogs don’t get stressed. So the moral of the story is, be more like a dog. J chillin’. I don’t think dogs even know what the stressed concept is. What would stress a dog out? Being abandoned? Maybe, but they still have the capacity to forget and love unconditionally. Not catching a squirrel? This for sure would be number one for my dog, if she were capable. Endless hours spent watching. Waiting. Hoping. Chasing.

Cats, on the other hand, I’m pretty sure are more stressed out than humans. Look at them. Always in fight or flight mode. Hissing at everything that looks at them. Constantly hiding somewhere dark and away from all other living things. I mean, really, what in their lives is so horrible they have lost all trust in humanity? Being fed, loved, given a free place to stay? I don’t get their ingratitude at all. Not all cats are that way, certainly, but we all know the ones that are.

On the bright side, I think I have just figured out my stress cure whenever I feel the anxiety cloud creeping on in. Remind myself that I’m acting like a cat. That will for sure snap me out of my funk and get me back to the it’ll buff mentality. I don’t want to be like a cat. No. I want to be like my dog – constantly failing in the search to catch the elusive squirrel but still coming back every 15 minutes with renewed vigor and a fresh memory to try again. Like it’s the first time and no one has ever pissed me off. 

Alright, jumping off my pedestal for now. If you know someone who would enjoy this post and want to share it with them, that would be awesome. Sharing is caring, after all. Don’t forget to subscribe to get these in your inbox twice weekly and follow TRP on Twitter for frequent musings. Thanks for reading!

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