What I do for stress

Yesterday I felt stress. I haven't felt stress for a long time. This is a strange thing to say, but one joy of being a teacher and truly being able to take time OFF in the summer- most teachers don't...they take classes or work or teach summer school- but I am able to take time OFF. I have been very relaxed and while I enjoy this sensation, it really brought to my attention how I deal with stress. Usually stress is brought on by so many things going on at the same time and a feeling of being overburdened with expectations and problems to which I must find solutions that... I don't know how I deal with stress, because it never ends. I do all the normal techniques that are meant to center a person and calm a soul, but it is only for the moment and when I blink my eyes, a new expectation or problem to which I must find a solution has arisen.
But yesterday, while floating in this beautiful sky of clear air that I call summer, a blast of winter harshness was thrust upon me. I received news about something I cannot control, it was unexpected, and it threatened to ruin my remaining 480 hours of bliss. What I do for stress:
1. Walk away. (this is not a coping mechanism, or a mature thing to do, but I'll be honest. When I was getting the bad news, I simply turned my back and walked away)
2. Tell everyone I encounter about the situation.
3. Ask my husband to take the kids swimming. Do things I have control over- make food, clean, pay bills, feel in charge of something.
4. Go to yoga. (breathe deeply, and focus only on my drishti)
5. Visualize worst/best case scenarios.
6. Move on

It is my ability to do number 6 that tells me I am sane, and everything will be okay.

This perspective is new to me only because I can look at this as an individual event, not an endless line of stressful situations stringing together like beads on a strand. Now off to enjoy my remaining 479 hours of summer, and do what I can to prepare for what I know will be a school year full of 1-6.

Sure, I'm positive

Objective: to be positive every single day. To let my positive attitude rule my life. To find a place in the world where I can shed negative thoughts and turn down into up, no into yes, can't into can, uh-uh into yep, depressed into uplifting, and ugh into yay! I struggle every day. You might too. I don't want to dwell on that. I also don't want to live in denial. There's a lot wrong with the world. Without ignoring problems or denying hardship, I want to turn the dial on my personal "what I can handle" meter, because it seems like What I Can Handle is what I choose. I choose to turn it to eleven ("it goes to eleven!") and face tomorrow as a new day. What choice do I have, really?