What do you do for stress relief ?

[Moemg]

What do you do for stress relief ? When I was working I used to shop when I was stressed but now if I'm stressed or bored I'll go to see a chic Flix and since we have a dollar theater nearby it's the perfect solution.

 

[73ss454]

I retired!

 

[figner]

Go for a walk.

Read escapist fiction (late it's been Harry Potter).

Play or listen to music - sometimes loud angry music will help get the stress out of my system, other times cheerful music will snap me out of it.

 

[Meadbh]

Exercise, socialize, listen to classical music

 

[Martha]

Use the leaf blower. March up a steep hill. Pull weeds. Go on the Internet. Read novels. Super clean the house. Listen to rock music or if real bad, listen to Mahler or Beethoven or at worst, Mozart's Don Giovanni. Call my sister or best friend.

You might gather that I have been stressed out a lot.

 

[Nords]

Sex, especially if my spouse is available.

Surfing.

Naps.

Reading discussion boards.

Probably in about that order, too!

 

[Goonie]

Get in the car and go for a nice long relaxing ride in the country. Maybe stop for coffee or an ice cream cone.

 

[WM]

Yoga

Meditation

15 minutes of writing down how I feel (not a to-do list, but "I feel worried that ___. I am annoyed that ____ isn't doing his job.") then I shred the paper.

If it's really bad, I start cleaning the house.

 

[Moemg]

Pull weeds. Super clean the house..

Martha ,
I have a guest room that has a terrific view of Sarasota Bay and lots of weeds to pull .

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Use the leaf blower. March up a steep hill. Pull weeds. Go on the Internet. Read novels. Super clean the house. Listen to rock music or if real bad, listen to Mahler or Beethoven or at worst, Mozart's Don Giovanni. Call my sister or best friend.

You might gather that I have been stressed out a lot.

But you sure must have a clean house with good music, good books, and no [-]weed[/-] weeds.

 

[Sandy]

hit the gym, super clean with the stereo blasting, work in the yard, have a beer or two or three...


DH takes Nords' approach, at least the first one.

 

[Janet H]

Throw away useless stacks of paper
Watch Mr Ed and Leave it to Beaver reruns
Throw frisbees for the dog
Watch my neighbors do yard work, while chewing their ears off
And... merlot always works too!

 

[thefed]

my wife

 

[Meadbh]

Sex, especially if my spouse is available.

Surfing.

Naps.

Reading discussion boards.

Probably in about that order, too!

Sooo, Nords, sorry to hear the sex life is on hold.....JUST JOKING!!!!!!

 

[Coach]

golf

Coach

 

[Orchidflower]

Work out helps the most
Watch mindless t.v. until I doze off is second best now that I am single

 

[happy2bretired]

I guess I am having trouble separating being stressed and being bored. I read the posts and many of the things listed, I would do if I was bored, not stressed. Maybe, bored isn't the word either...just something to do, would be a better term for those things. When I get stressed, I need an outlet of that stress, a way to blow it off. I guess sex is a means to do that, but not for me. A physical outlet is needed tho like housecleaning or exercise...something that gets me moving and off my butt.

 

[Joss]

Over the last years I've been consciously trying to address stress more by avoiding it. This is prevention, opposed to just working it out once I've got a case of it. In practice, this means adopting a "life's too short" perspective and just skipping emotional involvement in things that used to light me up.

One big factor is rejecting political "causes". I used to be all about "church and state", "gun rights", etc. Now I just don't get into it anymore. The older I get and the more I read, the more I realize causes are a constant and have been throughout history. And there's always more than enough people that willingly step up and provide the constant level of anger and frustration.

Part and parcel with "causes", I've become very selective about how much "news" I take in. I'm convinced that the "media" are devoted to not much more than sensationalizing every morsel of bad news they can uncover... or even create. While I used to see being "informed" as sort of a civic duty, I no longer feel that way. Humans evolved being able to handle bad news from within walking or horse riding distances. That was a manageable quantity. Now, we are bombarded with it, 24/7, from every part of the globe. It's just too much. I may be less informed, but I'm a damn site less stressed.

Then there's being more patient with those around me, and with myself. Lot's of work to do there.

As far as blowing off stress once I've got it... I try to either solve the problem or let it go. And there's all those escape tools already mentioned that I use too: reading, working out, mindless tv, fixing something.

 

[Khan]

I retired!

That's what I was going to write.

 

[73ss454]

That's what I was going to write.

Great minds think alike.

 

[citrine]

Clean the house.
Cuddle/play with Romeo and Casanova.
Take a long nap.
Eat some ice-cream.
Watch a movie.
Go to Starbucks and read a book.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I am a contractor. This leaves me out of many stressful situations.

If the situation is unsalvageable, I quit and find another job. No sweat.

For minor aches and pains, I currently research cab-merlot blends.

Ciao

Gitano