22/40 Stress Contest

The 77% Weekly

The 40/52 weeks-a-year, spiritual-religious newsletter

22/40

From Rabbi Brian

How Stressed-Can-I-Be Contest?

originally ran this contest when it only had a few hundred people on the mailing list.

This utterly sarcastic spiritual contest is intended to raise awareness to the societal braggadocio in which we have pride boasting how stressful our lives are.

The contest is this easy, the person who is the most stressed wins.
Simply use this convenient scale to calculate how many different stress-filled events you’ve managed to simultaneously survive over the last 12 months.

(Or be creative and calculate your stress according to your own scale.)

facebook like

Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer is the founder of Religion-Outside-The-Box.

After being ordained as a rabbi, he left the mainstream rabbinate to encourage people to find and be with (the) God (of their understanding) regardless of baggage. See rabbibrian.com and oldrotb.wpengine.com

His “day job” is teaching High School students so that they learn mathematics. (They learn more than math.)
The rest of the time is with his family.

Stress-filled events may include, but are not limited to:

Worry
Moving
Change
Unknowing
Responsibility
Trouble
Illness

Total all your applicable stressors and e-mail me with your point total.
Grand prize: Perverse satisfaction & pity.
Runner-up prize: More stress because you didn’t win.

Note: Artificially inflating your stress for the purpose of winning this contest is 1) strictly frowned upon, 2) silly, and 3) may result in disqualification.

Stress is real and it takes a toll on all aspects of our bodies – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. (Because stress cannot be seen does not mean it does not exist – the wind and love can’t been see, but I don’t many people who argue against their existence.)
We must learn to care ourselves.
And, perhaps, we ought to reconsider bragging about how stressed we are.
Spiritual-religious advice: Take it easy on yourself… or, you might win this contest.

With love,

Rabbi Brian

(In case you didn’t know, you can reply to these newsletters and I will respond back!)

Support ROTB…

Schedule a monthly recurring donation to ROTB and receive a FREE DOWNLOAD “How To Deal With Impossible People.”

$77 a month

$6.42 a month
($77 a year)

$3.34 a month

($1 an issue)

Or, make a one-time donation …

$1000	$180	$77	$15

I thank you. -Rb

ROTB’s newsletter, website, and podcasts cost thousands of dollars to publish and maintain. Please consider making a US tax-deductible contribution to help defray the costs. Details about donations to ROTB.

Mark was wrong

October 14, 2026

Mark is smart. He’s one of my smarter friends. He is able to contort his words so as to not split an infinitive, as I just did in this very sentence. (Mark would have written, so as not to split an infinitive.) ⟡⟡⟡ Four or five years ago, Mark’s youngest child—assigned female at birth and named Clara—told him that they

Except if you are Jenn F.

October 8, 2026

I’m here to help. As far as I can figure out, that’s why I’m here. To help. A saying attributed to John Wesley: Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As

Misplaced Righteous Indignation

September 24, 2026

I’m fuming. FUMING. F-U-M-I-N-G! I’ve just removed my key from the front door and crossed over the threshold. The setting is my first floor apartment at 7 Keren Hayesod in Jerusalem. I lived there for a year — two buildings down and across the street from the Super Sol where King George starts. About a 1¼-mile walk from the Western

22/40 Stress Contest

Related

Mark was wrong

Except if you are Jenn F.

Misplaced Righteous Indignation