One day a psychology professor stepped in front of her class, filled a glass full of water, and raised it where everyone could see.

The professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds. 

The professor then replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it.”

“If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light.”

“If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little.”

“If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will cramp up and go numb, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor.”

“In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

Stresses and worries in life are very much like that glass of water. 

When carried for short periods of time, they have relatively no effect. 

But the longer you ruminate, focus on them, and try to hold them without balance and rest, the more they hurt you. 

At first, you begin to ache a little, but after a while, that same amount of relatively small weight can make you feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.

You can carry a lot more than you think – but only when you do it a little at a time.