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 Maria DiGiorgio is a lifelong New Yorker, who currently resides in Commack, with her family. She is a devoted wife and mother, an educator and designer. Maria is active in her community, as a PTA mom and Girl Scout leader. She has a passion for interior decorating and loves to garden. She is an avid reader, and enjoys writing about life experiences and parenthood, as well as her personal observations about the world around us. |
| Do you remember the movie: “Airplane”? Do you recall the frenetic police chief, played by the famous and absolutely hysterical Lloyd Bridges? I certainly do, and I must tell you, the older I get and the more frenetic my life becomes, the more often I go back to his outrageous but hilariously on-point declarations. In actuality, his character referenced “quitting “ a host of very unsavory and socially unacceptable habits, all of which he possessed as a means to cope with stress. As funny and irreverent as these notions were, they do speak to one’s need for “assistance” when dealing with the chaos and turmoil of our lives. Of course, life doesn’t only entail emotional, physical and mental mayhem, but it certainly does pack a wallop on a fairly regular basis. For goodness sake, anyone entering their “midlife” stages, while parenting a child in the throes of “teenagedom” might consider doing far worse than what Bridges’ character suggested! Honestly, it’s a wonder how we survive on a day-to-day basis! Stress levels can easily hit the roof, several times a day, and we must figure out ways to deal effectively, productively and legally with it. But I digress . . . In all seriousness, I am a firm advocate of self-help practices, such as meditation, visualization, deep breathing, exercise, and when all else fails, chocolate! Somehow, nothing hits the spot quite like chocolate; in fact, I would argue it could easily trump all else. But, when none of the above is available or feasible, I would highly recommend removing oneself from the situation (even if just for a few minutes), in order to clear your head and salvage your dignity. Teenagers can provoke you in ways you never thought possible, before. Daily aggravation with work, relationships, household obligations, social commitments and just being alive, can all take a toll on your already fragile state. It takes just one too many episodes of watching yourself unravel and seeing the look of horror, disdain and disbelief on the faces of your loved ones to enlighten you to the fact that you’d “really better chill”, before you simply cannot recover any semblance of credibility or self-worth. Stress is a constant in our world. At times, we feel it very palpably; at times, it just kind of hums alongside our daily activities. Depending on our emotional state, the amount of sleep we’ve had (or haven’t had), the diet we’ve been keeping and the level of positivity we are experiencing in our lives (to balance out the equation), we will either rise above the bedlam, or succumb to it. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. Being in tune to our triggers and knowing ways to circumvent stressors will go a long way in preventing meltdowns, both for us and for our loved ones. Regularly employing good, solid stress reduction practices can greatly assist us in becoming successful advocates for ourselves, positive role models for others (children, are you listening?), and keep us from being added to the ranks of social misfits. Let this be “the right week for choosing peace and restraint”, and remember . . . when all else fails, there’s always chocolate! |
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20 lucky winners will win $500 each in prizes totaling $10,000. 