Stress Busters – Unusual Ways to Relax
These stress busters or unusual ways to relax will help you lower your stress level! Here are two stress busters to begin: wear an eye patch when you’re feeling irritable and hula hoop. Both stress busters lower your blood pressure and help you stay healthy. These unusual ways to relax don’t just reduce stress – they keep you young and vibrant!
“Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath,” says Natalie Goldberg. “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.”
If simply lying down and reconnecting to the earth doesn’t work for you, read on for some fun stress busters. Some are right from the author of Don’t Get Mad, Get Funny: A Light-hearted Approach to Stress Management (click on the book cover for more info), Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant. Others are from various stress management experts…
Stress Busters: Unusual Ways to Relax
Pay attention to the polka. “We have a CD called ‘Polka Therapy,’ which was written as a ‘drug-free way to cope with the stress of modern-day life,’” says Cheryl Miller Thurston. “We’ve taken ordinary problems and written polkas about them. We’ve got, for example, the “Road Rage Polka,” the “Pooper Scooper Polka,” and the “Middle-Aged Hip-Hop Polka.” There are many more, and they really are funny. I’m a big believer in humor being one of the biggest stress-relievers in the world.” To listen to the CD and learn more about this stress buster, go to PolkaTherapy.com.
Enjoy a blast from the past. Humor and stress management expert Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant teaches and uses many unique stress busters and unusual ways to relax. She recommends “blowing bubbles, hula-hooping (which also burns off calories and tones the core at the same time), bouncing on a mini-trampoline while working through problems (it reminds your body and mind that resiliency, the ability to bounce back, is important and often easy), and using a funny handshake when arguments are getting nowhere.” And – she has more unusual ways to reduce stress up her sleeve: ”Also, I suggest playing ‘So You Think You Can’t Dance’ while making up really funny dance moves or going for a funny walk – the goal of which is to spot as many things that make you laugh as you can.” – Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant, author of Not Guilty by Reason of Menopause.
Unusual Ways to Relax for Families
“My kids are ages 11,9,5,4, and 1,” says Christina Seine of Wasilla, Alaska. “I’m formerly a journalist and assistant editor of our local newspaper, and am home schooling the oldest four. I run and operate my business from home. Plus, I live in Alaska, where there can be weeks at a time during the winter when the weather is 30-below and it’s just too cold to go outside. That means six people in one house 24/7 and it can get a little, um, crowded sometimes.”
Do the Hokey Pokey. “However we have found a fool-proof stress-reducer – it’s never failed us yet,” says Seine. “When the older kids are banging their heads against the table because the math problems are insolvable, the 3- and 4-year-olds are in a life-and-death battle over who the dinosaur set belongs to and mom is freaking out because she can’t find the packaging tape and there are 14 orders that must go out THAT DAY, we always fall back on … the Hokey Pokey.
The rule is that everyone in the house has to participate. Everyone. At first it’s “MOM, not the stupid Hokey Pokey! It’s dumb!” But it’s impossible to stay grumpy while shaking your left elbow at everyone. It’s even better when grown-ups have to participate and Dad is out there with his leg in the air. It always ends with us all in a heap on the floor in masses of giggles. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Readers, what are your favorite stress busters? Comment below!
Comment by Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant on 20 October 2008:
I love the Hokey-Pokey and polka. Maybe I’ll try Hokey-Polka the next time the stock market falls!
Comment by Elizabeth Stanfill on 20 October 2008:
I love it! The Hokey Pokey for family stress…
Comment by Ginia on 6 March 2009:
LOL the hokey pokey