Comic 21: Stress, Life, and Trying to Think of Something Nice

Tensions.

What type of tensions do you usually have? What causes you to stress?

I’m thinking of a fun way to talk about stress and the things that cause stress, like: people that talk loudly in public, unpaid bills, the inability to produce a good piece of art, not being able to put thoughts into words, work drama, all types of social drama, etc.

There are many many more of course.

I always try to think of positive ways to handle the negative ideas that cross my mind and I always try to associate those negative ideas with the things that bring me happy thoughts mostly.

Whenever I find myself stressing about a certain thing I try to imagine it as a comic I can write/draw or a video game.. Most of the time it’s a video game because games usually include finishing quests, defeating bosses and lots of trials and failures. But, imagining situations as comics is fun because it helps putting things into a certain structure that makes everything silly and small.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that: stressing about stressful situations produces more stress and it stops the brain from thinking clearly. For me, when I worry and think too much I enter a dark area in my brain where I find the things that I fear the most: fear from failure, fear from the unknown future, and other frightening nonsense my brain like to produce. But then, I stop and remind myself that fear is something normal, so as stress.

Both fear and stress are products of our brain and they are results based on how our brains operate. Worrying about things is a defense mechanism for us to stop and reevaluate things and think in different possible scenarios (I’m not making this up, I’ve came across some books that focus on those ideas and those books helped me in understanding my brain better).

At the end, I just want to add one more thing, it is about being stressed out about trying to have the perfect happy life as portrayed by all sorts of media or by comparing ourselves to others. I find that to be the worst illusion and it is the reason why we can’t stop and enjoy the simple things in life.

There’s nothing as enjoyable as enjoying a conversation over a cup of coffee, or just stare at things just to enjoy the small details, reading a book and taking the time to ponder the meaning of certain words, appreciating an honest smile, a cloud in the sky or even a small puddle randomly reflecting a city skyscraper, even drawing a silly sketch of whatever is in front of us, or anything that makes us smile that doesn’t include taking a selfie 🙂

I don’t think we’re looking into each others’ eyes enough these days. Let’s try and change that. Let’s say nice words to each other, face to face, and make each other smile.

Until the next mind blabber,