The Stress Prone Personality

The Banquet of Consequences, Stress. Get a Grip, Part 1

The Banquet of Consequences, Stress.One

Dateline: Threadgill’s International Branch Office. Chatting with Eddie Wilson, the man who set up Willie Nelson’s First Fourth of July Picnic. At a later time, I’ll address the mental and physical reminders of that spectacular event. We could start with a study of the effects of second-hand pot smoke. But, it was Willie’s party.

Set-up: “Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Well, here I am at the banquet of consequences and I write about it, because, alas, I am not alone. (Here’s where you take a look in the mirror, or at More >

BANNED IN VEGAS, The Road Rage Tour

Banned in Vegas, The Road Rage Tour

Dateline: International Branch Office in the Las Vegas Paris Sports and Race Book. I just won $2.40 on a horse named “BR’s Funny Money.” Initials of maiden name? BR. I had to bet. Even My Sister the Baptist couldn’t pass up that kind of omen.

Set-up: To withstand the horrors of what follows, you need to read Banned in Vegas, Episode One.

Here we are in Vegas, my friend, Janie on her rented red scooter.

Stress. Anxiety. Therapy. Humor. How can I make sense of what happened? Perhaps, I should begin by saying, “Cycles change people.” Once my More >

MysteryShrink BANNED IN VEGAS!

MYSTERYSHRINK BANNED IN VEGAS!

Dateline: Las Vegas Branch Office in the Paris Hotel Race and Sports Book.

You’ve heard about the awesome high rollers banned in Las Vegas? The wise guys banned for counting cards or using some other complicated system at the Blackjack tables? The just too famous for their own good celebrities banned for their wild antics?

Well, turns out, getting banned in Vegas is not as nearly as hard as those celebrities make it sound.

In fact, with the help of my friend (Let’s call her Janie) I, too, was able to achieve “banned in Vegas” status.

Anxiety. (That word is a plant. The guy who helps me with More >

Horrors! Cots and Huts!

Stress, Avoid “Huts” and “Cots”

Dateline: DFW Airport Branch Office

MysteryShrink Lesson to remember: “It’s unfortunate, unpleasant, and inconvenient—but not a catastrophe unless I decide to make it one. . . . Or unless flight attendants aren’t speaking any longer and they are handing out cots.”

That’s right cots.

Then there was the “$12,000.00 South American Renewal Experience” with each traveler upgraded to their own private hut. That’s right hut.

More on the story when recovered from trauma.

More on the Stress Prone Personality. When I wrote a book on the subject, I was quite sure events couldn’t turn an average person into a Stress Prone Personality—but More >

Stress and Defining a Self: Laura Lippman’s “I’d Know You Anywhere”

Books and Movies on the Couch Defining Yourself as a Person: Laura Lippman’s I’d Know You Anywhere The challenge of applying Bowen Natural Systems Theory is that the trip is not simple. You can’t define yourself as a person by following a few ‘tips’ from a magazine, an online set of rules, from the hoorah of a motivational speaker. Defining a person is bloody hard. It’s hard to comprehend what “defining a self” even means. We need all the examples we can find. Defining a self means working toward having more of decisions and actions based more on “best thinking” and having fewwer More >

Stress: The Lesson of Madrid, Final Episode

Stress and the Madrid Death March, Cut Your Stress in Half

Dateline: Luxury bathtub in Financial District Hilton in Madrid. To figure out how and why the location is mentioned, you must first read The Madrid Death March, Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three, Episode Four, and Episode Five. There just no easy way to get in this silly a predicament.

So how does an hour in a luxury bathtub qualify as one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned? How does that experience make so many later interactions down right funny instead of stressful?

Picture this. Switching hotels in Madrid, and too cheap to More >

Madrid Death March, Episode 5, The Spanish Stress Crawl

To appreciate the misery of the Spanish Crawl, you must first read, Episode I, Episode 2, Episode 3: One Wrong Decision Can Cost You Your Life!, and Episode 4: Lost in the Underworld.

I survived intact off the train at the transfer point. I only wish I’d gotten off at the right station. Now what? I locate another map and reroute my journey. Lucky me, I could reach the correct transfer center through the pedestrian tunnel. Lucky me there were several two and three level changes, but there were escalators. Lots of escalators.I only wish More >