The value of having true friends

I’m sure most of us know ongoing stress is never a good thing. What is also well known is that too much of this stuff brings serious health issues to the fore.

There may be times you have to ‘burn the candle at both ends’, but you simply cannot keep doing that. Yep, pay day always seems to come!

Now, as I recall, some research gurus and other experts in their field came up with some helpful tips because of their studies, to help people properly unwind. So, I offer these as a few helpful suggestions in my column today.

In brief, one of them said: when you are taking a breather, a few days break, or a holiday even, don’t take your office with you. By that, they meant your office tasks, perhaps on your laptop or your phone, or a folder full of work-related things to get done while you are on ‘holiday’. For those in the rural sector, the ‘office’ will be your farm, and any dramas that could be happening there at that moment.

Physically you may be ‘out-of-town’, but in reality, you’re still very much at the ‘office’! You still make and receive work related phone calls, and your mind is still plugged into the ‘office’, whatever that may mean for you. All you have done is change your geographical location.

When that’s the case, then most likely you’ll get back home more stressed, and even more tired than when you left.

Additional helpful tips included suggestions for more short ‘time-out’ options. Activity like a hobby, a sport, getting out for a meal, or even things like volunteering for something, were options to consider. The nitty-gritty bit was that the activity needed to be something that fully captures your attention. The big plus is that it gets your mind off the job for a few hours.

As we are all different, what works for one may not cut it for someone else. We didn’t come cut out from a ‘cookie-cutter’, so the answers won’t come that way either. The trick is to find what actually works for you. Something that positively distracts you.

For us, we currently own a serious motorcycle. So, getting away on a ride for a night is one thing that works for us. With 1700cc throbbing underneath us, my mind is most definitely on the ride, not on a bunch of other stuff!

Fishing used to do it for me too. But a major change of location has us living a couple of hours from either coast now, so it’s not as readily accessible as it used to be.

And then there is always family and good friends. We recently had our youngest grandchild with us for eleven days – quite the distraction from our ‘normal’ would be one way of putting it!

Living in the city, the farm life offered him a whole new world to experience. At just 18 months old, he came to the farm with his very own pair of Red Bands. Well, the little guy absolutely fell in love with those gumboots. It was fun to watch.

The great value of having true friends is definitely in the mix for me as well. As Thomas Aquinas said centuries ago: “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship”.

For me, and many others like me, we have a real faith. True friends have come with that, with a Friend like no other top of my list. God bless.

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