Three Fun Stress Busters

I saw a headline recently that had the nerve to ask, “Do You Ever Feel Stressed?”  Come on, who doesn’t?! 

I honestly can’t even begin to imagine the sort of life a person would have to live that would put them completely out of touch with stress. I probably came about as close as you could come when my husband and I were first married.  I was a young (19) housewife who soon became pregnant with her first precious little girl.  No job-related worries or stress, because my “job” was cleaning house, taking care of a perfect baby, shopping, and cooking meals.  It’s kind of a hoot for me to look back now and realize that my biggest daily dilemna used to be “lasagna or manicotti?” 

Yet, even then there were nights that consisted of 4 hours of sleep, feelings of homesickness (he was in the military and we were miles and miles away from home), and so on.

We all have our own levels of stress, and what seems stressful to one person isn’t even on another’s radar. I remember being all kinds of stressed out over an MRI I was scheduled for - and no one understood.  My husband, my mom, my doctor….everyone thought I was a nut job (either that or they were trying to downplay the whole thing hoping I’d come down from the ceiling). But being claustrophobic, I was beyond terrified.

What’s stressful to one person may or may not be to another - and it really doesn’t matter, in the end, how anyone else feels….it’s the person inside the stress that gets to say how bad it is!  I sometimes have to remind myself of this when one of my girls is stressed out about school work, an assignment, or an argument with a friend.  Part of me wants to say, “Oh, honey, that’s nothing…” - but that’d be a lie.  It is something.

Anyway, with this self help blog, a mental fitness blog and a mental fitness website - I spend a lot of time researching stress and its effects.  The effects are, to be perfectly honest, horrifying.  Stress can lead to just about every medical nightmare you can imagine - and it’s unbelievably sneaky about it.  It drives you to the sick ward without you even realizing it.

I can’t stress how important it is to deal with STRESS.  I’ve rounded up three fun stress busters and listed them below.  Try each and see which works best for you.  When you find it - put it on a repeat cycle!

1. Watch a scary movie.  Is this a perfect time of year for that or what?  Several months back, things in our home biz were all kinds of chaotic. There were great things happening, but they were all happening at once. They buried me under their good intentions.  Then one evening, my daughters and I watched The Hills Have Eyes.  Oh, yeah - we screamed, we shouted, I grabbed the arms of my chair…we had a grand old time.  Afterwards, I felt different.  Exhausted, sure, but also lighter as though something had been lifted.  The experience had taken the worries, frustrations, deadlines, and gotta dos off of my back and piled them in a corner.  I didn’t even realize how heavy they were until I was no longer packing them around!  The next day, I retrieved them from the corner and got to work.  I was refreshed and found that I was able to concentrate much better.  It seems to me that the screaming released pent up energy and anxiety.  I’ve actually heard that screaming releases pain as well.  Remember that next time you stub your toe.
2. Dance.  Put in a Nelly Furtado, Justin, Jay Z, or Fergie Ferg CD and get busy.  Tear it up!  The music, itself, lifts your mood and the movement is a perfect tension tamer.  
3. Snuggle with a loved one.  That can mean a sweetie, a daughter, a son, a cat, two cats, three cats, four cats, five cats, a dog, or any combination of the above.  Affection - giving and receiving - makes you feel on top of the world.  

 And if you’re on top of the world, it can’t be on top of you.

Joi