find more healthy ways to relieve stress
When 12 months ago

things get stressful (I happen to take one too many projects at times!), I can keep my act mostly together and keep doing what I’m supposed to do, but at some point my body starts to send these random protest signals… So I figured if I make a list of things that help as a point of reference, I can come back to it and pick and use a few, ‘cause when stress comes memory fails too. Ah, I don’t have to explain, and you probably don’t care :)

Anyway, here is a list, and it’s just begging for others’ input:
- Eight-hour sleeps
- Task cuts (as in cutting the unnecessary and some of the necessary)
- Long breakfasts
- Change even something as small as trying a new greeting style every morning, anything that breaks the 6-wall of routines.
- Running
- Drinking water (especially if taken slowly)
- Taking a shower
- “Blank” naps There is probably a more proper name for it… the one that you take after you wake up and your mind is full of what you had to do and what you have to do, so you switch everything off and take 15 minutes away from everything.
- Eating apples somehow it’s comforting, you know, the whole strategy that goes into eating an apple… starting from the equatorial orbit, then north pole, then south pole.
- Kicking a soccer ball
- Pushing the driver’s seat back, half-lying, stretching the arms when driving
- Writing
- Talking about ideas and ideals
- Faking calm (I’m not sure how healthy this one is!)



Comments:

bibliomane happier and more productive

the list

I love your list! Good for you for deliberately trying to take good care of yourself.

I’m guessing no one around you has any idea when you are stressed out. :)

Lemmee see if I can think of some more ideas for you:
- music
- stretching
- reading
- laughing (only at things that are funny, of course)

Maybe I should make a list like this for myself. I’m sure that everyone’s strategies are peculiar to themselves.

Thanks bibliomane...

Happy self-care day :)

faking calm is actually healthy, I think..

some more:

1. meditation or even zoning out/disconnecting from all the stress for 10-15 minutes a day..
2. I need to second Bibliomane’s suggestion of music. That’s a big one.
3. yoga.
4. cleaning. I always clean when I’m really stressed out.
5. breathing exercises.. or taking a few deep, cleansing breaths.
6. time management/choosing not to procrastinate. Helps prevent more stress.
7. positive affirmations/mantras.
8. being silly.
9. basically, doing anything that feels good.

Thanks, Aimee.

From your suggestions, I think I have tried the even ones (music, of course, nothing beats Bach in the morning), but not the odd ones (odd-numbered, I mean). I think I’ll give them a try although, I must admit, I have a twisted perception of yoga :)

whoa.

that is some seriously advanced yoga, right there..

I bet Madonna could do that.

Ummm...

I guess she could! I know zip about pop culture and/or celebrities!

Friede is back

That pose

Looks like it would feel really good if you could actually get to a point of being able to do it. Great stretch for the hips and lower back!

:)

That’s a font-48 “if”, probably capitalized too. :)

there's actually a book called

Comfort me with apples

:)

Friede is back

Great book!

But I liked Tender at The Bone even better. And Comfort Me With apples has some pretty upsetting parts. That whole story about the bungled adoption. Very sad. Ruth Reichl is a very interesting writer. I’m very fond of the combination of good literature and good food at the same time. Actually, that reminds me of something I have done over time as stress relief. I absolutely love MFK Fisher and for some reason her essays are very comforting. I think she writes about a slower time and about ways of connecting with people over food that are important. Plus her essays are such wonderful snap shots of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. She always takes me to another place. I especially like The Gastronomical Me. I reread sections of that book a lot as stress relief.

New Isabella is feeling much calmer now...

I could say "don't over-analyze so much"...

...to relieve some stress, but I can’t really claim to know how to do that myself. :)

I myself never thought of claiming the title “master of over-analysis,” but I believe I may qualify. I have been accused and rightfully so of “analysis paralysis.” That’s generally a very stressful state of affairs.

:)

But it’s fun. Over-analyzing is my favorite “toy” and I’m not willing to let go. :) Well, I might let go after I grow up. That’s what happened to my Commodore 64, anyway :)

(This comment was deleted.)

asterisk is done with the Hardest Semester Ever

i like your ideas!

Thanks for sharing them!

The only thing I can add is picturing the most peaceful place I’ve ever been…Playa Flamenco on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico (see pic).

{Turandot} gets ready to shift gears

when things get stressful

I find nothing better then thinking at the new and most interesting projects I might turn to, as soon as I get rid of the current ones.
Projects are addictive, I believe.

Seriously, anything that involves the body and leaves the mind out helps me when things are just too much.
Usually that thing is sleep. But till I have time to sleep things aren’t really stressful at their most. That leaves me with just music. ;-}

Trauma_Junkie needs to clean up her goals list.

Fake it till

you make it I guess! I often do that with cheerful greeitngs and by the end of the day I find I have infected myself with cheerfulness.

What about Yoga. I somehow envision you as a great Yoga-doer…

that and dancing crazily around the room in just underwear…

:D

You’re funny, TJ. :)


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