There’s an old wives’ tale that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water he will jump out, but if you put a frog in a pot of cool water and slowly raise it to boiling the frog will allow himself to be boiled to death.
The “temperature” of our lives is our stress level, and we react the same way.
If we have a sudden onslaught of stress, where everything goes to heck in a handbasket all at once, we know we’re under stress. Our bodies react to it, and we manifest all sorts of physical and mental symptoms that we are aware of because of their suddenness.
Yet if the stress level gradually increases, we get used to it, and don’t realize how much stress we’re under until we have a breakdown of some sort. We get used to the tension in our backs, not sleeping well, or any of the other manifestations.
The moral of the story is that stress, like heat, can build gradually, and can get to alarming points without our really being aware of it. Be aware of your temperature, and take steps to lower it if it is getting to warm!
