By Todd Hayes
I retired early at age 58. I was in reasonably good health but was unable to sleep. Stress was unreasonably high and had been for years. I wanted to put the job (and stress) behind me. I had a good pension that would provide enough income and benefits with adequate savings to ensure my wife and I would be okay. My wife was still working and would be eligible for her own pension when she retired 8 years later.
It took me seven years before the nightmares left over from the stress I had felt from work stopped. I’ve had a few health scares after retiring including pulmonary embolisms and an arrhythmia.
I now sleep pretty well getting 6 and a half to 8 hours sleep almost every night. No more nightmares. My stress level has been down since retirement and keeps getting lower. I recovered from the PEs and the arrhythmia is only a minor inconvenience. I’m busy with current events, volunteer work (I won’t take even a part time job or anything in which I’m paid for working), reading, travel and exercise (hiking and running).
I’m afraid that if I had continued working I would have died by now. Maybe not. Maybe my exercise routines would have saved me. But, I know I’m happier and look forward to each day.
Don’t get me wrong about work. I was treated pretty well. A lot of my stress was self generated. I can’t blame others for how I felt. So, I needed to own what was happening to me and remove myself when it got to be too much. For me, it’s made things much healthier.
Source :Quora
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