Three days of holiday weekend - technically four as my husband had Friday off - and I've decided to do not much more than thoroughly enjoy having him around for four days straight. Stress seems to come to a standstill when he's at home.
So let's talk about stress for a moment before I go back to relaxing and doing not much of anything.
Stress is a fact for everyone. In terms of physics, stress is a measure of force per unit area within a body. Thanks, Wikipedia! Even though I managed to get all the way through high school without taking a physics course, I recognize that gravity is stress. Moving against gravity demonstrates physical stress. That is normal and unavoidable, and will continue at a relatively constant rate unless we all move to the moon where gravity is lower!
The types of stress that become a concern are medical, mental, emotional, spiritual - probably not the stress source itself so much as how we manage them.
Some people manage stress easily or with no apparent outward difficulty. Others react to stress but then recover. Still others react strongly to every bit of stress to hit their doorstep.
Stressors can come from one huge event - a house fire, an auto accident, death of a loved one - or from the tiniest situation - spilling wine on a rug, finding a jar lid that just won't open, a broken fingernail, a missed hair appointment, an added pound on the bathroom scale.
A stressor that can totally derail one person may be trivial to another. One person may handle huge stressors gracefully and yet be completely blown apart by a much smaller event.
One of us may be able to handle the stress of chronic pain but still be totally derailed by the pounding of a drum set next door. Maybe we can deal with the broken pickle jar gracefully but are brought to tears by discovering a small tear in our favorite sweater.
There's a difference between how we react to stress and how we respond to stress.
One person may react to stress calmly, absorbing the difficulty and taking things in stride. Another may react to stress by fracturing emotionally. Yet another may react physically with skin disorders, headaches, migraines.
Each of us responds to stress in different ways as well. Some people get mad, shout, hit walls, scream at the top of their lungs, punch pillows, cry, go for a run, overeat, forget to eat.
Others may respond by growing uncharacteristically quiet, withdrawing from friends, avoiding social contact, appearing depressed (not to be confused with clinical depression, which should be addressed no matter what stressors are present).
What stresses you out? How do you react? How do you respond? Feel free to share anonymously.
Sunday
Recognizing our Stress Reactions and Responses
Wednesday
Current Free Shipping Offers from Perfectly Shaped Life
As promised, here are the free, reduced cost, and flat rate shipping offers (and their expiration dates, if any). I'll be adding more in future posts as I find them.
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Receive FREE ground shipping on any order of $75 or more at FashionBug.com. Use promo code 776192007 at checkout. Expires 10-23-07
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Tuesday
Deciphering the Basics of Color Seasons
If you've been following the series so far, you've had some time to play around with the color display widget and observe the different effects of color palettes for each of the seasons. Now is a good time to go look at that widget again, and then let's clarify a few more terms.
Part 3: Basics of Colors, Seasons, Warm vs Cool
Warm Colors versus Cool Colors
Warm colors are the colors on the color wheel of red, red-orange, orange, orange-yellow, yellow, and yellow-green. Cool colors are the colors on the color wheel of green, green-blue, blue, blue-violet, violet, and violet-red.
Color Season versus Calendar Season
When we talk about a color season, we're talking about a selection of colors that work best with a particular eye, skin and hair color combination. This is not to be confused with the Fall Fashion Season 2007 colors toward which many fashion designers will gravitate... which depends entirely on who you talk to, since Paul Pelssers says that the season's colors will be rich jeweled shades mixing gypsy, country, Irish and Russian influences, and Premiere Vision states "...Shiny or ultra-matt, metallic, not completely plain or concentrated, colours grow languid with a serene and enveloping decency..." while Fashion Trendsetter swears by "...Bright hues mixed with pale tones, matching colors and opposites...".
But no matter who says what: Color seasons are not meant to be worn only during seasons of the year.
Some color season analyses will take more than physical appearance into account. One such test is found at What Season Woman Are You, which also considers personality traits.
In addition to eye color, some also look at the patterns found in the eye itself. To quote Color Me A Season:
Each season has a dominant feature which is shown in the eye. The SUMMER eye appears as crackly glass, WINTER - spokes on a wheel, SPRING - Yellow sunburst around a gray doughnut shape, AUTUMN - Aztec sun directly around the pupil with specks and dots sometimes.
At its most basic, the color seasons can be divided as:
| Warm | Cool |
| Autumn | Summer |
| Spring | Winter |
Stay tuned... our next step will start to determine your personal color season.
Drive-By Shopping Surprise
Make Every Day into Earth Day! Visit our new
Eco Friendly Center for eco hints and products.Micro Step: Fix a Leak A dripping faucet can cost gallons of water in a very short time. Check it out: Stick a big bowl in the sink under the drip and see how much has accumulated overnight. You may be shocked.
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