Stress? Who? Me?

A fellow blogger (thanks, tacogirl!) recently sent some of us bloggers a link to an article about bloggers being under stress and a few who have died from heart attacks lately. Although the article dealt mostly with people who blog professionally and get paid for it (what a novel idea!), it did get me to thinking.


Even though I am retired, I do live in Mexico and stress here is inevitable. I try to keep it to a minimum. But I do often feel stressed out. And it usually has to do with maintaining two blogs.

I try to keep a storehouse of blogs in draft format. If I wake up one morning with no idea whatsover, I can always call up one of my drafts and publish that. If it is complete and ready to be published! This is a photo heavy blog and a lot of my drafts are waiting for me to find just the right pictures to illustrate it. Or enough pictures to post it.



But there are many nights where I lie in bed, toss and turn and worry about what I am going to publish tomorrow. Or I compose the text in my head, which is very helpful for relaxing and falling asleep. Not! B often reminds me that this is supposed to be a hobby, not a job. Even though he is right, I still treat it like a job, spending maybe way too many hours on it. Both physically and mentally. Sometimes I get jealous of fellow bloggers who live in large cities where there are thousands of things to report on and photograph. But here on a tiny island that is 5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, subject matter can be tight at times.



And the really big stress maker? Mean, rotten or nasty comments from people. Fortunately, I have a fantastic reader base who are very suportive of most of what I do. I hardly ever get a bad comment, so when I do I fret about it for days. Wrestling with the decision of whether I stepped over the bounds, whether or not I should amend it or delete it entirely. Just one comment can make me question the validity of what I do. And every comment I receive, unless it is a personal attack on me and not what I have said, gets published. I think I mentioned before that I have only ever rejected and not published two comments. I figure if I get to have my say, then you can too.



I have held back on publishing some posts, thinking that maybe I was being a bit too bitchy or my sense of humor might not be understood. Like the recent What Were They Thinking! It was not very well received and I spent a few sleepless hours pondering comments and emails I got about it. I thought about that one long and hard before hitting the PUBLISH button. But I try never to attack people for who they are or what they are. That is just not me. But if you choose to wear or do something that I think is just wrong....and do it in public....then you are fair game. Besides, posts like that one reflect who I am, another side to my multi-faceted personality. And guess what? I may just post another one someday!



So does blogging cause me stress? Hell, yes! But ya know what? It by far and away causes me more happiness, has made me much more aware of my surroundings and the best part....I have met some fantastic people that I would never have met save for the world of blogging. And soon now, I am going to get to meet even more of those people in person! So maybe a little stress is a blessing in disguise!