Thursday, January 10, 2008

Stressors

Stressor: (strěs'ər) noun. An activity, event, agent, condition, or other stimulus that causes stress to an organism.

Stress: (strěs) noun. A specific response by the body to a stimulus that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.

Stimulus: (stĭm'yə-ləs)something that incites to action or exertion or quickens action, feeling, thought, etc.

I wanted to break down the title of this blog so that no one would jump to the conclusion that I am depressed or stressed in a bad way. Often times I think we forget that stress isn't just being stressed out by something negative. Although we use the word in bad situations ie: "Ugh, I'm so stressed out!" However, it's not always a bad thing. So, now that i gave you those definitions, I'm gonna break it down. A stressor, also called a stimulus could be called a situation, stress could be called your reaction to that situation. So if you won a million dollars and got very excited about it and peed your pants, the million dollars would be the stressor that led to the stress of you peeing your pants. See, not necessarily a bad thing, even though peeing your pants could be turned into a stressor and cause the stress of, I don't know, using part of that million to by yourself a new pair of undies. All this aside, I'm gonna now go into what I originally planned for this blog.

For awhile now, I have been praying for God to help me with a few issues, one of them has been the way I seek affirmation. I feel like I look for affirmation from people more than I do from God and I want that to change so I've been praying about it. Although I have felt very stressed at points (in a bad way), not so sensitive reminders from some people have really helped me to seek affirmation from God, and if He doesn't approve of what I'm doing then I need to fix it. For as long as I can remember, I have been a people pleaser. Saying, doing, acting in whatever way I could to try and keep whoever I'm with happy. Unfortunately, this didn't help to develop very good character and early on I became a two-faced gossiper. Another thing that has hindered me is not wanting to be at fault for anything, even though I hate when she says it, I know it's true and that's probably why I hate it but I hate when my mom says that I'm good at playing the victim. Honestly, I suck at playing the victim and it gets me nowhere and you'd think that I'd have learned that by now. I wish I would've, and I'm slowly starting to, but these two things; being a people pleaser and not wanting to be at fault for anything, have caused a bigger problem, lying. To be brutally honest, I'm kind of a compulsive liar, I realize that is almost a paradox but if you keep in mind that a paradox is a statement that seems to be self-contradicting but actually expresses a truth, then it makes sense. That's taken me, gosh, I don't know how many years to say that but I never wanted to say it because I didn't want people to not trust me. I guess that's pretty retarded but maybe if people quit trusting me I'll learn my lesson and in the mean time, be almost forced to seek affirmation only from God since people will doubt the validity of what I say since they know I'm a liar. I can't fool God so there is no point in trying to lie to Him, so like I said, hopefully I'll learn my lesson. I know that people will probably try to read me and search what I say for lies and call me out on something, and by all means, do it. I know that I tend to try and figure out when someone is lying or stretching the truth to make themselves sound cool, so if you catch me doing it, call me out on it. I've learned lately that I learn really well from that because I've been trying not to lie so when I get called out and am put in an uncomfortable situation I have to fight the urge to lie, and I have been getting better about not lying. I know you're probably wondering what this whole thing has to do with stressors being good, so I'll try to explain it. When I'm called out on something, it puts me under stress to have to come up with a way out of it, and if I do it honestly, I feel much better about the situation which gives me good stress. I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense but since this is only a blog it's hard to express everything through typing. I pray that God keeps me out of my comfort zone, because it allows me to grow in Him, and honestly, that's all I have been feeling lately is uncomfortable, but when I do, I know it's a good thing, and I know God is answering my prayers, and that helps build my faith incredibly. I'm not really sure how to end this blog with out it seeming unresolved so I suppose I'll just have to end it like this.

Friday, January 4, 2008

I LOVE THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!!

oh my word... i love the Holy Spirit!! i really wish i was at church or youth group so i could have a Holy Ghost party, whoo! i FEEL SO CRAZY RIGHT NOW... like i could just go and run or jump around. i really wanna listen to some jonathan stockstill and dive into the river. oh man, sorry if this blog sounds crazy but you don't understand, i feel crazy!!! i love this video!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkDBjQ_PtoY&feature=related you gotta go watch it!!! also watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPYXDGhC170&feature=related it is soooo funny and awesome!!!

-devo

ps- staying true to my word i'm giving a shout out to two awesome 220i interns- maria and bridget!