The stress factor

I generally handle stress well. There are times when I get stressed out but I have learned with age and experience not to sweat too much and to let things go when I can.

But yesterday, man-oh-man, I had a stress-out the likes of which I cannot recall in recent memory. I think it was brought on by the intersection of multiple things, work-related and writing-life-related. I hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights and that may have added to it. At any rate, right around lunch time, I found myself feeling suddenly jittery. My heart rate was up a bit. The person who came to my office to meet with me shortly after lunch asked me why I was out of breath–I hadn’t noticed. I found that I could not concentrate well.

It was an odd experience and once I recognized it (and tried to make feeble jokes about it) I began to feel better. By the time I got home I felt much better and by the time we sat down to dinner I think I was back to normal.

And, as it turns out, I slept pretty well last night. Couldn’t keep my eyes open, even though I tried. I decided no to work last night, not to read or write or browse the Internet. I just slept.

I feel much better today and I’m looking forward to getting over to the Nebula Weekend events later this afternoon. Still, that minor stress-out was a little bit freaky.