Three Things I Do To Cope With Stress

 
 

I don't remember what my reaction what when I first saw what Holiday Insights (a website I used for some of the inspirations for my Hive Blog Posting Month daily prompts) had for today, but I know what my reaction was when I checked it out last night. 😂

Today's daily prompt for #HiveBloPoMo is -

National Stress Awareness Day

I actually and literally Laughed Out Loud, especially with what's been going on in my offline life as of late (story for another time). Not sure why I need a day to be aware of stress, since it seems it's with me on a daily basis. 😜

(yes, I know that's not what it means, but still...lol)

Speaking of stress, I started this post last night and the clock is fast ticking down to the last of the day via UTC time, so even though I had so much more to say, I'm going hit "publish" and might do a Part Two some day soon.

Three Things I Do To Cope With Stress

 

1. Distraction

It's the easiest and most difficult thing to do when dealing with stress - find something to keep your mind off of what's stressing you out. Sometimes a favorite movie will work (and sometimes it reminds you of the very thing...lol), and a good book can help (if you can get your brain to focus on the reading). The trick is remembering that distracting yourself from thinking about what's stressing you can sometimes help you focus and figure out a way to deal with the stressful situation.

I used to do things like daily quests on World of Warcraft (back when I still had a sub), and had a long stretch of doing FB games like Candy Crush. It scratched my OCD itch (yes, actually was diagnosed with a mild form years ago), as well as distracting me from the klaxon horn of whatever stressor was front and center that particular day.

These days, one of my favorite ways to distract myself is a puzzle game I have on my phone. I swear, if someone figured out a way to make a Hive based version of that game, I'd never leave my couch!

 

2. Humor

I meant to do an update kind of thing about my Essential Tremor (think Katharine Hepburn, although for me it presents mostly in episodes, not constant shaking yet), during March as it's Essential Tremor Awareness Month, but I never got the chance. While stress isn't the reason for my tremor, it certainly doesn't help, and a sudden moment of adrenaline (something as simple as tripping over something small can trigger), trying to keep the stress level down is helpful to getting the tremor to stop.

If it ramps up when we're home, sitting with the puzzle game mentioned above is my usual go-to distract. However, if we (meaning me and hubby) happen to be out and about, when it's triggered, making light of the situation helps. Jim has been known to start a little dance as he walks next to me, telling anyone watching silly things like, "we like shopping so much we can't help dancing" and does what he can to get me giggling.

 

3 Music

Way back a million years ago in college, I made a mix tape called. "Fuck The World" and any time I was stressed out, I put on my headphones, dropped the tape in my Walkman, and either paced around my room or went out for an angry walk around the campus. Nowadays, I play certain songs, some of which I put together quickly as My DeStress Playlist on Spotify playlist, to show examples (although given the songs I picked, "FTW Part 2" might have been a better title...lol) either at full volume on my computer, or with (much smaller) headphones on my phone.
 
 

Wishing everyone a stress-free day!

 
 

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