Stressed? Okay, let’s fix it…
There’s not a person in this world – Tibetan monks included – who doesn’t, at some time in his or her life, get into a stressful situation.
For a newborn, it might be a bad diaper. Well, I guess that could be true for some senior citizens, too. (It’s a JOKE!!!)
For many of us it’s work-related, traffic-related (particularly when you live in a place, like I do, where you daily experience some of the most horrific traffic engineering on the planet), or just the nervous buzz you get every time you turn on the six o’clock news.
But how you deal with it will determine whether you get headaches, heart attacks, ulcers, hives or, at the very least, a bad night’s sleep.
Pay attention, because I’m going to offer you some solutions that I guarantee will help, and none of them will cost you anything, relatively speaking.
No, I’m not going to do a ‘Doctor Oz’ and prescribe Mongolian yak milk extract that’s only available on the sixth full moon, I’m simply going to suggest a few things that don’t take much more than a just a little time. Time for you, grasshopper.
Let’s say you’ve had a bad day dealing with a deadline or some obnoxious co-worker or a boss that reminds you often how replaceable you are.
At your workplace, you can simply go, say, to the restroom, turn on a lavatory tap, then perhaps take a seat in a stall, lean back (if there’s room, of course) and focus on the running water. If you have to pee, you’re already somewhere you can do that, otherwise just ‘zone out’ on the sound, close your eyes and, if that’s not enough, start counting backward from 100. I swear this works.
If you’re at home after a bad day, there are loads of options.
Lie flat on the floor (or on the bed or in your comfy La-Z-Boy) and turn on a fan (I’ve found Lasko box fans to be quite effective) and think of nothing but what you’re doing. You can jazz this exercise up by putting a couple of cucumber slices on your eyelids, but not all of us keep fresh cucumbers around (and pickles don’t work).
Sometimes background music is preferred over the fan, so you can tune in your local PBS station and listen to, oh, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8, or maybe some Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. If you prefer contemporary, John Legend’s or Sam Smith’s stuff is pretty stress-relieving.
Another way I like to deal with anxiety is head for the country and drive, aimlessly, down a rural road, taking in the scenery, but to do this you’ve of course got to live near open country and have a car and the time to do it.
If you’re lucky enough to have a partner, back, neck and foot rubs are always sure-fire ways to de-stress, and adding lotion can turn it into…well, something a little more.
And then there’s meditation, of course, which is easier than you think and, contrary to the transcendentals, you don’t really need a mantra, just peace and quiet.
The important thing, of course, is to do something about stress. Don’t let it compound or you’ll be doing your meditating in the E.R.
Now excuse me while I go do one of the above.