The Great British Stress Buster
Stress! Who needs it? Wouldn’t it be just great if you take out a pair of magic scissors and just cut out those bits of life that stress you out like the discarded bits of a sewing pattern? No wonder everyone on the Great British Sewing Bee looks so cheerful.
One of the difficult things when it comes to dealing with the stresses and the strains that our busy lives specialise in is that they are impossible to quantify. They don’t arrive with a tape measure or a set of scales that allows you to identify exactly what the size of the ‘problem’ is. Sadly there is no pattern.
Like cholesterol – in a good way
To make it worse – much like cholesterol – some stress can actually be good for you, like the challenge to beat your half marathon time or to learn a new song. The trick is knowing whether what you’re feeling is doing you good or just adding to the long list of things you could really do without.
Learning how to meditate is an absolutely brilliant way to get the better of your stress. It doesn’t have to be expensive, all it takes is someone to show you the path and the rest is a purely tranquil matter of you and your inner self coming to terms with the world around you. It starts with just a slow breath and a conscious relaxation of the shoulders as you exhale – try it now. It’s amazing how such a simple technique can act as a kind of emotional reset button.
Some people are more complicated. Some like to fight the bad stress with the introduction of a little of their own. For example, the way that handheld technologies have made gambling in one form or another cheap, accessible and above all fun, makes for an instant mental getaway. Online casino sites like 32Red or Skycasino are designed to deliver precisely the sort of instant rest, relaxation and emotional recharge that modern life so often demands.
The excitement generated by a gamble of some sort can be every bit as much a release as a cup of green tea and half-an-hour in the garden with a magazine. That said, as millions of people are already discovering, you stand to win more money playing 32Red roulette or any other online gaming site than you ever will catching up with Peter Andre’s love life.
Chew gum and chillax
There really is no need to be too proud to find some mental chewing gum. Everyone is entitled to their own form of escapism. Whether you can chillax with a film, get off on a good tune (try it with headphones if you’re serious about leaving the world behind for a few minutes) or just make a call to an old pal, the trick is to tell yourself that is something that is just for you.
Cranking up your creativity is another great release – although it can be hard to fit into a busy schedule. Creativity, whether in the form of sewing, arts or crafts tends to take time and space. But if that’s how you get your kicks, keeping stress at bay means blocking out the time to make it happen. The rule is simple here: if you don’t make it happen it won’t happen.
Getting down
However, stress buster number one has to be exercise. Whether you choose to make it frenetic and sweaty, or whether your mood tends you towards something slower and more sensuously stretching, like yoga or tai chi, there is no substitute for releasing the endorphins that are your body’s natural emotional stabiliser.
The rewards of feeling virtuous
What is more, there is a virtuous sense of feel good that underscores any purely physical pay back. Exercising has been shown to increase a person’s sense of self-worth, boost their self-confidence and help them rise above the stressy tide of small scale daily aggravations that can otherwise threaten to get us down.
And if you just don’t like exercise, if being told to get out there and breathe in the fresh air is another thing that simply winds you up, remember, no-one says you have to do it this way. Just take a long slow breath, let it out slowly and think about threading a needle instead. Doesn’t that feel better?
