Stress and relief
Iâve just had a very tense and stressful week, which was due to a combination of having a bad cough and cold and feeling rotten, and yet still having to prepare to give a research seminar at another University, whichâfor one reason or anotherâturned into a much more significant event than it would normally be.
I did the seminar yesterday. Things went fine, people seemed to enjoy my talk and my voice didnât pack up, and now I feel exhausted but exhilarated. Finally, the weight that has been pressing down on me so insistently for a week has been lifted off, and I feel very light and free. Sometimes itâs worthwhile enduring stressâif only for the fact that itâs nice when you stop (like hitting your head against a wall). In fact life would be pretty dull (comfortable, but dull) if we didnât stress ourselves at all. The challenge can be wonderful, and you get a great feeling from overcoming (or at least enduring) obstacles. The real problem comesâI supposeâwhen stress becomes chronic and inescapable.
I had a dream about the talk a few days before I was due to give it. I donât normally talk about my dreams1, but Iâll describe this one because I think it shows just how much pressure I felt myself to be under.
In the dream, I was chatting away to former colleagues when I was suddenly introduced to give the talk before I was ready. I rushed up to open my laptop and connect everything up, only to find that the keyboard was missing. All that was visible was a mass of copper contacts, and I had to try and figure out which contacts I needed to close to generate the right keystrokes to start my presentation. Then I had to hook up the projector, but was faced with a bundle of cables as thick as my armâall in different colours and with odd plugs on the end. I was beginning to really sweat as the audience watched me impassively while I wrestled with the cables, and the time ticked on.
Dreams like that tend to linger on in your mind, so when the real talk came round, I got there very early, opened my laptop up and checked that the keyboard hadnât inexplicably disappeared (check), and that there was only one cable with the correct plug on the end (check). Only then did I allow myself to relax slightly.
1 Except with Mr. Bsag, whoâas my âlawfully-weddedââis contractually obliged to listen to me witter on about any number of boring topics.
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What Dreams May Pun When you start having dreams about your work, you need to stop. When you start having dreams about anything you...
by MyLabIsOnFire @ 13/02/2004 1:03 pm • Permalink •
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Isn
t it amazing that, once past our pretentious and indulgent pubertal years, although most of us are well aware of how boring and insignificant our dreams are to others (basically because we know how boring and insignificant their dreams are to us) we still on occasion must "inflict" a dream on somebody ( like a spouse ) despite our best intentions. This must be the vice with no name, on par with drinking directly out of the milk bottle. But sometimes the picture just isnt complete without the sharing. By the way, has there ever been a believable dream sequence in a movie or on t.v.? Such a scene must be as rare as a believable exotic primitive dance/ritual scene.----- Dream sequences on TV/Film - Luis Bunuel and David Lynch spring to mind as making fairly believable ones.But more importantly, bsag,you sound much better. It is good to have you blogging with a spring in your step again.
by ThoughtBadger @ 13/02/2004 2:03 pm • Permalink •
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john: 'Waking Life' by Richard Linklater -- excellent film about dreams. But yes, generally they are really bad.
ThoughtBadger: Thanks! I did rather lose my joie de vivre for a while. I hate it when that happens.
by bsag @ 13/02/2004 7:02 pm • Permalink •
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