Stress Relief

[William_Montgomery]

When things get heavy, stressful or you just need a bit of space, do you have any particular tasks/activies that either help give you some perspective, or give you a bit of a mental time out?

Physical activity/exercise is great for just about everything, whether you're lifting weights, running/walking, chopping wood, or anything inbetween. It's good for the mind as well as the body.
Creative outlets are great too. Writing, drawing, playing music etc. I find that helps a lot in organising the mind.

 

[demented dale]

First of all I am learning that stress is a choice. I watched a program once about Mongolian herdsmen. They were breaking camp in extreme mid winter. The foreign presenter, through an interpreter, asked did they get stressed. After some discussion to actually understand the question the answer came that they didn't even have a word for stress.
I find meditation is good to relax and do that everyday. Archery is good 2. I also found practicing coin magic very relaxing and I am very new to it but I am finding that knife throwing and manipulation is also very calming and of course "cut wood, carry water" which, as we all know, is the path to enlightenment. x

 

[Tengu]

Write hardcore academic paper.

I dont have a choice but to focus fully on that

 

[Pattree]

Play my flutes.

It is the nature of these rustic flutes that all its notes work together. I don’t play a particular tune, I just play my feelings in rhythm and phrase.

 

[Chris]

Sort of depends on the type of stress.

When I feel I need calming:

Playing guitar, spending time sat with my wife and my dog, sitting in the woods, reading Terry Pratchett books are my go-to for day-to-day stress relief.

Doing those things with some nice soft lighting and with incense or scented candles going helps me out.

If I feel the angry and aggressive sort of stress:

Playing the guitar (but harder ), listening to more aggressive music, throwing heavy weights around, an hour on the punch bag. If fate makes it so that my angry sort of stress coincides with really bad weather, I also like to go out and do a determined hike/camp/walk in it. Somehow the fight against the weather makes me feel better.

 

[John Fenna]

Walking on the hills or in the woods does it for me.

 

[Broch]

I started running my own systems company when I was 30; if I hadn't learnt how to manage stress I think I would be dead now. I studied Zen (think early mindfulness) and practiced basic meditation techniques; literally lifesaving as far as I'm concerned.

I still meditate but I have orders of magnitude lower stress (although theory says we need stress and generate it whatever our lifestyle).

You just can't beat a walk in quiet woodland though. My problem is, I go down to the wood to work, and two hours later I'm still sitting listening to the birds

 

[demographic]

Meet my psychiatrist.

 

[TeeDee]

Meet my psychiatrist.

Alot of truth in that.
Never felt worse after being in the company of a dog.


Cats however...

 

[William_Montgomery]

Sort of depends on the type of stress.

When I feel I need calming:

Playing guitar, spending time sat with my wife and my dog, sitting in the woods, reading Terry Pratchett books are my go-to for day-to-day stress relief.

Doing those things with some nice soft lighting and with incense or scented candles going helps me out.

If I feel the angry and aggressive sort of stress:

Playing the guitar (but harder ), listening to more aggressive music, throwing heavy weights around, an hour on the punch bag. If fate makes it so that my angry sort of stress coincides with really bad weather, I also like to go out and do a determined hike/camp/walk in it. Somehow the fight against the weather makes me feel better.

Yeah, I think there are many different types of stress, and they're not all bad by any means.

Playing music is great. I play the piano, which I find is a really good way to de-stress, focus the mind and clear it out if it's getting a bit cluttered.

I know what you mean with facing down bad weather.

 

[demographic]

Alot of truth in that.
Never felt worse after being in the company of a dog.


Cats however...

Ahh, we have two cats as well and to be fair to them a purring caton her laps a great stress reliever as well.
The older male is about 3 kilos but still the boss of our 26 kilo bull lurcher dog. The dog is afraid of the cat but even when the cat swipes him the cat keeps his claws in so its just a little lesson in speed and behavior for the dog.

Dogs not so soft with anyone elses cat that comes into our backyard mind, everyone elses cat is verboten and gets chased out.

 

[William_Montgomery]

I also found practicing coin magic very relaxing

I learned quite an impressive (at least I thought so) disappearing/reappearing coin trick. I showed it to my 4yr old niece who was amazed and kept asking me to repeat it. Seems she had a busy schedule though and after a while she 'had to be off'. It wasn't until afterwards I realised she'd conned me out of at least £2.50.

 

[Bushcraft4life]

Aside from the outdoors stuff I started playing Darts recently.

 

[demented dale]

I learned quite an impressive (at least I thought so) disappearing/reappearing coin trick. I showed it to my 4yr old niece who was amazed and kept asking me to repeat it. Seems she had a busy schedule though and after a while she 'had to be off'. It wasn't until afterwards I realised she'd conned me out of at least £2.50.

she will go far in life . xx

 

[HillBill]

I listen to music if i'm at home. Either some relaxing soft Jazz, or classical. Loads of stuff on youtube that play for hours, with relaxing backgrounds.

This channel is my favourite i think...works wonders for me. Just so peaceful and relaxing, it really helps quieten my mind.

 

[FerlasDave]

There’s a pretty good driving range near me that is really nice when it’s raining. I’ve no clue about golf but whacking balls really really far seems to be a bit of a therapy of late.

Mostly because it’s been too cold and wet for fly fishing.

 

[HillBill]

I mentioned i liked Classical music... More specifically, Niccolo Paganini. Why the hell is this in Italic? Ah, ***, anyways, I used to play the Violin as a kid, from being around 7 to 11, Not because i 'used' to like the Violin, but because i used to fancy a girl who played it. Kinda developed an interest in classical violin over the last 2 or 3 years... Vivaldi, Paganini etc... Interesting chap was Paganini... was rated so highly in his day that he became forever known as the Devils violinist... people at the time didnt believe anyone could be so skilled (he could play 12 notes per second), who wasn't possessed by the devil... so when he died, the church wouldn't allow him to be buried on consecrated ground. So for years after his death, (Nelson would have been jealous) he was basically plopped in oil at an olive oil factory until they found a suitable place for him. Wish i could have heard him play in person. But as with a lot of classical music, i never will.

 

[TeeDee]

If I'm feeling stressed or off I walk the 1mile to the local estate where they have a collection of mostly native species wildlife ( Grey Wolves , Bears , Lynx... oh my... )

They also have an area of marshland dedicated to a small mob of Wallabies - so I take my little book of poetry up there and read to them, because sometimes they also look like they are feeling down ( under ).

 

[gibson 175]

I'm declaring WAR.....on stress

 

[Laurentius]

Taking an axe to some overgrown tree limbs, nothing like it.