Regular stress.

Talking to health. I was chatting with a colleague, we'll call him "Reid", and he asked me, "are you stressed?" He didn't ask me because I looked particularly stressed; instead, he was looking to see if I was sharing the stress that he was feeling.

So, looking calm and disinterested, I blurted, "yes, I'm really stressed." It was true, although really unknown to me until that moment. There was no immediate therapeutic benefit felt from the telling.

We discussed our stress, and the hints of stress that our bodies (minds included) had given us over the last couple of weeks. (I more than suspect that the stress was not just from the workload, but from the nature of the work. )

Anyway, as I was walking down the stairs heading home, I was debriefing the encounter alone and mumbled as I got to that point in the story, "I'm really stressed." Immediately, my impulse was, "yes, I'm really stressed!" And I felt relief at the telling. Some bad humor vented.

"Reid" and I dispassionately (while overtly and hyper conscious of our dispassionateness) discussed the therapeutic incident the next day, trying to figure to whom we could admit that we were stressed and feel relief. How much vulnerability is necessary? And to whom could you be so vulnerable without creating other stress?

Ridiculous. Why is saying "I'm stressed" taboo like saying "I have bowel movements"? Both should be obvious. In fact, the more remarkable thing to say would be "I am not having bowel movements." But that, in fact, we would be more comfortable admitting.

Rule of the day: To admit the existence of regular...ehhemm...regularity.