Skip to main content

Destress Ten

There's a lot to stress over this summer, which prompted me to make some changes to maintain a positive attitude while I manage everything. If you're in a similar boat, here are:

Ten Things I'm Doing to Reduce My Stress

Baking: Cooking is therapy for me, and baking is my favorite form. Yesterday I baked a new batch of my guys' favoriter bagels, and last night I made apple turnovers for them.

Crochet Every Day: I regain a lot of peace and calm from crocheting in my spare time. It's also great physical therapy for my hands.

Focus: For the first time in my life I am taking active charge of not only what I think, but how I think. My goal is to be present in this moment, not dwell on the past or worry about the future. Today, right now, is where I am and where I need to be.

Generosity: I've always been a generous person, but I'm trying to incorporate one act of kindness every day. It's not anything gradiose, usually just a nice gesture or kind word. The interesting thing is that I'm getting kindness is return, so it's nicely reciprocal even though I have no expectations.

Gratitude: It's too easy to dwell on the negative, and offering thanks for the good things in your life is a great mind and heart reset. In the evening think of three things that happened that day for which you're grateful, and say thank you for them. It's as easy as that.

Morning Meditation: My new spiritual journey is taking me in some interesting directions. Every morning now I spend five minutes in meditation before I do anything else. I think about the teaching I want to focus on for the day, offer gratitude for having another day to live and learn, and center myself on the path. It's working wonders.

Reading for Pleasure: Each morning I read something for pleasure while I have breakfast. This also calms my thoughts and adds joy to the start of the day.

Stretching: Before I get up in the morning I stretch my feet, legs and arms. I also take a moment to be grateful that I did wake up and have another day to live.

Trying and Learning: Learning something new is never stressful for me, and I consider it a lifelong goal to keep learning, especially by trying new things as I'm a hands-on person. Today I'm testing a yarn skein holder as part of a $10 or less series I'm writing for my crochet blog.

Wellness Mindset: Rather than dwelling on all the bad news and complications that are cropping up so fast this summer, I'm turning my thoughts toward the ways I can live better, healthier and with more peace and calm. I am watching my diet very closely now. Exercise has become a priority. I set small, positive challenges for myself each day that are doable and make me happy.

It's easy to let the difficulties in life, the depressing aspects of current events, or the grim possibilities of what's to come in the future get to us. I think we're all dealing with a lot more than we should. I can also tell you from my experiences that taking some time and making an effort to stress less, live well and not dwell on the negativie will help. Give one thing on my list a try and see if it does.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love Triangle

The Inheritors (also known as The Heirs ) is an older k-drama that is more like an American soap opera, and yet has one of the best high-school love triangles I've ever seen. As the illegitimate son of a wealthy conglomerate chairman, Kim Tan (Lee Min-ho) was exiled to study in California so that his older half-brother could be groomed to step into their father's shoes. Instead he mostly surfs and goofs off. He meets Cha Eun-sang (Park Shin-hye), who comes to LA in order to escape her dismal life in Korea while bringing wedding money to her older sister, only to find out her sister has lied about her marriage, and is living in squalor. After the sister takes the money and runs off, leaving Eun-sang with no place to stay, Tan ends up alternately taking care of her and making her situation worse. He also falls for her, but she finally connects with a friend and returns to Korea. The money her sister took ends up forcing Eun-sang and her speech-impaired mom to mov...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pretties

While at the antique mall where my donated throws were being sold I saw this pretty portait of a frog made out of beads, brooches, necklaces and other bling, and had to take a photo of it. This artist is so clever with how they recycle vintage jewelry and findings into new art. That day this little guy came home with me. He was cheap, made from a very old crazy quilt, very shabby, and has a serene quality that primitives sometimes possess. He'll be hanging out with me in the sewing room. Was it necessary to buy this? Nope. Do I regret the purchase? Nope. I also bought this apothecary jar filled with buttons, threads and other wonders. If you want to sort through it with me, check out more pics here .
Post a Comment
Read more

Glorious. Kinda

Writing up my thoughts on the Chinese drama You are my Glory is going to be one of those head-scratchers; I liked it, it got annoying, I liked it anyway, it got more annoying. In the end I was left feeling like most of the last third of the series was smacking me on the nose for being a romantic and wishing, not for the first time, I was a screenwriter who could get hired to fix this script. Anyway, okay. The premise for this series is actually pretty good: poor but brilliant aerospace engineer Yu Tu (played by the fabulously handsome Yang Yang) crosses paths with fabulously wealth but not-too-bright actress Qiao Jingjing (portrayed by the genuinely pretty Dilraba Dilmurat) who was his high school classmate. He's looking for a new job that pays better; she's in hot water due to an inappropriate product endorsement snafu, and they end up spending a lot of time together. It's a cross between Notting Hill and Apollo Thirteen, sorta kinda. Yu Tu is in a life crisis ...
Post a Comment
Read more