RELAX

I have been having a lot of problems with my back since January this year. During my last massage (very painful massage I might add), I asked the therapist why my neck muscles were so tight. She said that I am carrying all my everyday stresses right there in my neck. I usually pride myself in not stressing, so I wasn't sure about that. However, my muscles were so sore for a couple of days after the massage, I realized that I have a tendency to tighten up all my muscles in my back, neck, and jaw fairly often. This is probably why the dentist keeps telling me that I am grinding all my teeth down. I didn't even know I was doing that until it hurt everytime I did it.

After giving it some thought, I decided she may be right. All this trouble started one week after my husband broke his ankle (his RIGHT ankle). Talking about stress, having to drive my husband everywhere was a nightmare. Fortunately it was only for 6 weeks, I'm not sure our marriage could have survived much longer. He says that I am an "aggressive" driver. Hmmm...Just because I don't poke around doesn't mean I'm aggressive. He also complained about my quick starts and stops. Well, that's what the gas and brake pedals are for.

When I shared the thoughts about my back pain, possibly being from stress with my husband, He wondered out loud, what stress do I have in my life. Well I'm not responsible for a multi- million dollar business, only the educating and training of the 2 other people who live in our house. Of course sometimes simply being in the presence of small children is stressful as any stay at home mom can tell you.

Moving on, that is when I started having all this back pain. So I decided to make a conscious effort to keep my muscles relaxed and trust God more with all these things that cause stress. So I wrote the acrostic below to help me remember what it means to relax.

Realizing Christ is in Control
Everything is taken care of
Laying all my burdens at His feet
And truly trusting Him is
Xactly what I need to do daily.

So my nickel's worth of advice is to relax - hopefully I can have a better control of this soon. Stress and worry is very bad for your health even if you don't realize it. One of our very healthy young friend's recently had a lung collapse. The doctor told her it was from stress. So be healthy and relax.

Have a blessed week or month!