by Nick Halpin
Our lives are rightly a mixture of things we have to do and those that we want to do. When stress affects us, and sometimes it’s due to a natural cyclic process that follows the rhythms of the academic year, the ‘shoulds’, ‘oughts’ and ‘musts’ take over and squeeze out the activities that are closer to our hearts. These coercive words carry power. Failure can be rewarded by feelings of guilt, misery and inadequacy. Our sense of perspective is affected.
How do we break the vicious circle? By becoming aware of how often we say ‘I must’, ‘I ought’ and ‘I should’. By asking ‘what do I really want to do? ‘what’s really important?’ ‘How much can I leave to one side?’ The answers may surprise you. Stress often clouds our judgement to the point where quite trivial items assume an importance they don’t deserve.