Monkey On My Back

We undergo all kinds of stress in our lives due to various causes. Sometimes it is just the mental kind where outside forces are making demands upon you. You must deliver and the stress of accomplishing the tasks can be very taxing. You also have physical stress that is encountered during training, racing, or fleeing from lions and tigers and bears Oh My!

Mental stress does also affect you physically and vice versa. How you handle it is often the key to success or failure. When failure is not an option, the levels of stress you reach can be quite staggering.

Of the two kinds of stress I am discussing, I find the mental kind to be much more debilitating. I think it breaks your body down just as assuredly as running all out for a marathon. It is the difference between a chronic physical breakdown and an acute physical breakdown. Both will break you down completely if you don’t alleviate the cause at some point. Unless you are running for your life, you can stop the physical stress at any time you want. Mental stress I find is much harder to control.

I’ve been undergoing a large amount of mental stress. It is making me sick to my stomach at times and has put a serious damper on my training. This stress is in the form of a monkey that is sitting on my back. I tried to take him off a couple of days ago, whereupon he started screaming and attacking me. He wanted to get back on my back and didn’t want to be set free. I need to find a way to take him off and make sure he sings and dances like an Organ Grinders monkey. Then perhaps I can move on with my life and I’ll be inspired to start training properly again.