A new love for the same picture

Today I celebrated my two year anniversary with my wife. I was amazed to look back and see the transition that has taken place in my life. 28 months ago I met Amber at an ice-skating activity with several friends. Three other boys were trying to get Amber’s attention. Little did they know, I had already won the battle.

That night Amber and I spent three hours talking about our families, hobbies, and goals in life. That was it from that moment on I wanted to spend every moment with her. Every day I learned something new about Amber that pushed me further in love, even when I told her I loved her and she simply replied, “I really, really like you and am very, very interested in you.”

Amber is like the main picture on my blog. Because I took it, I feel like it is a great picture. I could stare at it and find all the ugly things about it but my eyes won’t let me. Instead I find something new which I had not before seen to love every time I see the picture. I have found myself doing this same thing with Amber. Every day for the past two years I have found something new to love about the same picture (Amber).

In every day life we are faced with the challenges which make us feel uneasy, frustrated, anxious, worried and so forth. These feelings can be summed up into one word, STRESS.

Stress is in our lives regardless of how hard we try to avoid it. The way stress makes us feel is not something to be desired. Few people enjoy the challenges it brings, however stress will affect everyone for better or worse. Some stress can be a positive aspect in our lives, it can encourage us to perform better or to practice more to obtain a goal.

The negatives to stress are more than bad feelings. Stress can cause inconvenience (like memory loss) or even bodily harm. Under some stress the body will release glucocorticoids, which hinder the formation of white blood cells. This will cause the immune system to slow down (Cohen & Herbert, 1996). A slower immune system means more time being sick.

Along with the slower immune system, stress can lead to harmful outcomes. Certain stresses can cause blood pressure to increase and plaque to build up in the arteries. The build of plaque forces the heart to work harder, this can lead to heart-attacks (Strike et al., 2004).

With all the scary outcomes stress can bring there is hope for us all. Research was done with couples that do not habitually kiss. When the couples were asked to increase their kissing to 30 min a day, a change took place in their immune systems. The results of the study show an increase in the couples immune systems (Kimata, 2003). If stress lowers the immune system and kissing increases it, one might be led to believe that kissing for 30 minutes (or more if you can get it) lowers the stress in our lives. So grab someone that will let you and pucker up and enjoy the next 30 minutes.