Years ago, when I was a technician at a well-known electronics component manufacturer, we did an experiment to demonstrate the benefits of using our products.
We used a thermal imaging camera to take a snapshot of a working computer circuit board: one with our components, and one with the competitors. We were going to give customers visible proof that our components ran cooler and thus consumed less power.
We discovered something entirely unexpected: the “after” image not only showed that our components ran cooler, but it showed that using our components made the other components (including the microprocessor) run cooler.
This baffled us at first, until a company physicist explained what we were seeing: with the competitor’s products running so hot, the microprocessor had no place to dissipate its heat. But with ours in place and running cool, the microprocessor was able to offload that heat and run cooler.
In other words, it wasn’t just one area that was affected by the relief from excess heat, it was the whole system.
Families work the same way. When even one member is overloaded with stress, that stress is absorbed and magnified by everyone in the family.
Relieving just one person’s stress makes it possible for the entire family to feel the relief.
That’s easier said than done… but it makes sense. And it means it’s a really good thing for mom and/or dad to have a stress relief outlet – whether it’s something physical like running or swimming or biking, or something epicurean like cooking, or even spending just half an hour alone in prayer.
Forcing yourself to take the time to offload that stress will make a huge difference in the stress level of the whole family.
