Don't Worry BE HAPPY !!!

I must admit. I have had my fair share of Stress over the years. The key is to effectively control it properly and this varies in many ways.

Let me start of by telling some of my story. I lived a pretty stress free life until right after University. When at 23 years of age I found myself moving to Burkina Faso, West Africa for a 2 year stint working at a student center for locals. This was my first official trip to another continent. Burkina Faso is considered the 5th poorest country in the World. I dealt with neighbors dying on a monthly basis from malaria, and other diseases. This was the major stress for me there. One day my neighbor came to my door and he said they needed me to drive him and his son's body to the grave yard. His son was only 4 years old. I remember the father bringing out his child from his cement block house. The boys feet dangling out of a white sheet. We drove to the make shift grave yard (kids section). I counted about 25 graves that were about 3 feet long. The head stones where pieces of broken pottery or rocks. It was a very sad sight indeed.

Here I am in Burkina Faso, West Africa with 2 local kids. Picture was taken in 1994

Another stressful situation for me was leaving the U.S. once again for Germany. I was there about 6 1/2 years doing Refugee work. Germany was a little less stressful and very fulfilling. However my stress was being away from my parent's home so long. They were getting older and needed help. I was dealing with this in my mind a lot which caused undue stress. Being single I was able to visit them every year for vacation. This was a great stress reliever.

After Germany I moved to Israel in 2007. I stayed until the summer of 2009. The stress of moving to the middle east, and a new culture was a bit daunting. I found Israel a pretty difficult place to live. While here I found a local church that was a Philippines Church. This congregation helped me cope with the stresses of living in the middle east. All the people there were going through similar things.

Helping my anxiety about my parent's situation in needing help I moved back to the U.S. for 5 years. This was a wonderful time of helping, and hanging out with mom and dad. During this time I also got married and had 2 kids at the time. The joys and stresses of parenting. Wow! I found the support around us in helping with the children was wonderful. Family is so important to have around when having children.

This is my Father, Mother, Kathlyn, and Ayanna. Picture was take in September, 2010

Today I find myself back in Israel with my wife and 3 kids. Sadly, my father passed away 1 1/2 years ago (fortunately I was able to see him his last 8 hours of life). Flew back to the States for 2 weeks during that time. The stress of today in Israel is pretty real. Probably the most I've had in my entire life. The stress of kids schools (Hebrew only), trying to find "alone" time with my wife, dealing with language school, and just paying bills. How am I coping with this stress. I tend to find that prayer helps. The one thing I've found that is the best is to get away by myself and just have time to me, even if its only 2 hours per week.

In all my stresses in life here is what has helped the most:
Time to myself
Time to reflect on my life (prayer, reading the Bible, seeking God)
Make adequate time to speak to family back in the States
Find a friend you can relate to me, and who I can relate to, and talk about my anxieties.
Making videos
Taking photographs
Sitting in the sunshine in a quiet place
watching the children play
watching my wife smile.
Writing in a blog on STEEMIT.
listening to someone else that has a lot of more stress then I do. That actually cheers me up (and I thought I had problems)ha.
Hang out with POSITIVE people. Not pessimists.

really can't tell you how you should deal with your stress. All I can tell you is that stress will be in many situations in life. What makes the difference is to recognize that you have a stressful situation, or are going through one, and doing something about. Talking is a great thing. Talk about your situations, and give some time to yourself. Take care and have a great day. Now go out there and BE HAPPY !

Article by me, @crowe on Steemit

(Be Happy, and Success picture taken from google imaging under the subject happy and success)
(All other photos are by me, @crowe on Steemit)