A young woman stood before a captivated audience, a glass of water raised in her hand. With a confident smile, she began her lesson on stress management. Everyone in the room assumed they knew where this was going—surely, she’d ask the age-old question: "Is the glass half empty or half full?" But instead, she surprised them.
“How heavy is this glass of water?” she asked, her smile widening.
Answers rang out from around the room: “Eight ounces!” “Twelve ounces!” “Twenty ounces!”
She nodded thoughtfully before delivering her poignant response.
“The absolute weight doesn’t matter. What matters is how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s no problem. If I hold it for an hour, my arm will ache. If I hold it all day, my arm will go numb, and you might have to call an ambulance. In every case, the weight remains the same, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels.”
The room fell silent as her words sank in.
“That’s exactly how stress works,” she continued. “If we carry our burdens for a short time, we manage. But if we hold onto them endlessly, they weigh us down, making it impossible to carry on. Stress, like that glass of water, becomes unbearable when we never set it down.”
She paused, letting the metaphor take hold before offering a solution.
“You have to put the glass down. Rest. Recharge. When you pick it up again, you’ll find you’re stronger and more capable of carrying it. But if you never let go, you’ll be overwhelmed.
So, as early in the evening as you can, lay your burdens down. Don’t carry them into the night, robbing yourself of peace and rest. Tomorrow, you can pick them up again with renewed strength.”
Her voice softened as she concluded, “Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, put them down for a moment. Breathe. Rest. Life is too short to let stress steal your joy. Conquer it by setting it aside, even if just for a while. Enjoy the present moment, because in that presence, you’ll find the strength to face whatever comes next.”
The audience sat in quiet reflection, many clutching their imaginary glasses of water, already feeling lighter.
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