Hypertension and Perma-Scowls

It's not any new news that I can get a little stressed.

What's new is that I appear to be managing it like a hormonal pre-teen... that is to say, Not Well.

It started last week, when Boyfriend of Amazingness looked at me across the dinner table and expressed concern. When I asked what the cause of his concern might be, he gestured around his mouth and said "Something's wrong. Right there. Your face looks like that all the time."

I sighed and expressed the same hangups I've had for years: Fall is a rough time of year for me. I try to work through it, but there's a lot to worry about. This year those worries are compounded by my concerns about the new house and the Young Master. I love my life, but parts of it just Stress Me Out.

But then, over the following 48 hours, I really focused on how the muscles in my face felt. And he was absolutely right.

I was developing a perma-scowl.

Fast-forward just ever so slightly to this morning, when employees at my place of business were offered an opportunity to take part in a biometrics screening.

Doctors checked height/weight, body mass index, cholesterol and (of course) blood pressure.

My numbers were great across the board: I'm right in my normal range for height/weight, BMI, cholesterol and sugars...

But my blood pressure (which is typically a nice mellow 108/68) was a whopping 125/95. That's shot right past "Pre-Hypertension" into "Stage 1 Hypertension," and was more than somewhat startling.

There are any number of reasons why the numbers might have been high:

   * I had just finished my morning cup of coffee

   * Boyfriend of Amazingness was out of town last evening, which meant that the Young Master was a handful and a half during the night and morning routines

   * I was super-late for work, which always rattles my cage

   * I had forgotten about the screening altogether and had to run down the stairs to make it to my appointment on time

Any one of those could have spiked my typically-solid BP, so I'm certain that the combination was a set-up to fail.

Nonetheless, the results were right there on the little meter: "Stage 1 Hypertension." Coupled with my previous perma-scowl diagnosis, it got me thinking.**1

I lost my father because his heart failed him. And that, in turn, broke my heart.

There are a lot of hearts counting on me to keep ticking well into the future.

After all, Boyfriend of Amazingness won't snuggle himself, and the Young Master's belly is in need of near-constant attention. I've got things to take care of, and I've got to make sure I stick around to take care of them.

So I ask you, my ReaderFriends: How do you fight stress? How do you stay Zen? How do you keep ticking?

**1 Admittedly, I let the diagnosis stress me out too.