Stress Buster Friday, alternative title: Mama Needs a Time Out

I think I might be losing my mind. Seriously. No, for real.

The stress and tension are piling up in ways that I have not experienced in a long time.

The good news is, there are things I can do about it. Like running away to an exotic location and lounging in the shade of mountains next to an ocean while sipping strong cocktails for days on end. ahhhh. How nice this sounds. Shall we go? now?

Oh wait, strike that. I can't really run away. Not for days at a time anyway. Sigh. One can dream.

So, yes. I am stressed out, or I was. I probably still am, but I feel better. I think. At this late hour of 8:55 p.m. on a Friday night, I am finally starting to relax a bit and will probably go to bed soon.

Stressed out or not, today was one of those luxurious mental health days in which I took all my tension, put it aside for awhile, and spent some time taking care of myself. Thanks given to my wonderful husband for taking the day off work to take his mom to the doctor and give me some space.

Rambling aside, the point of this post? Top Stress Busters for Today:

• Community Service Work. I am finding putting some hours in at the local homeless shelter to be quiet and relaxing. It so far has been pretty mindless work, rather meditative, and comes with the added feel good about helping someone out bonus. Today my job was to divide socks and underwear into zip loc bags to be given away at next month's food pantry day in preparation for back to school time. Easy and good.
• Talk to a friend. Bonus points if this friend is a good listener, and extra bonus points if you remember to listen to what they have to say as well.
  
• Appreciate Art. Take a walk in a sculpture garden, visit an art gallery, and/or make some art of your own.
  
• Sit somewhere quiet where you can think, read, and write. For me, this is best done in a quiet coffee shop. I sat today for hours going through my journal, writing prose, reading National Geographic and making lists. I looked at book catalogs and updated my calender. I also spent a fair amount of time staring into space. Luxury.
  
• Cross something off of your list. When I am most stressed out, I usually have a lot of small tasks that have built up over time. Crossing some of them off helps. For me, I finally stopped by the book store and picked up a copy of Cracking the GRE* 2009 edition. I have been away from academia for so long now, that if I am going to consider grad school, I should at least put some thought into what taking the GRE might look like.
  
• Play. When I am stressed out, I forget to actually play with my kids. I push them away, when pulling them in is what really helps. Play dough and clay are great stress relievers for me, so is pretending to be a shark.
• Exercise. Today I did yoga and push ups (modified for me). If I had gotten a good walk or run in, I think it would have been even better.
• Work in the yard. Knowing that I am taking good care of my flowers and veggies makes me feel good. Today, I stirred my compost and trimmed the grass around my beds. I visited my sunflowers, and watched my two year old gently give one a kiss and hug and say, "I love you sunflower-ee" That was pretty durn sweet.
• Blog. That's me of course. I still think blogging is a silly idea, but obviously I am hooked on it. Plus, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment, and every great once in awhile I seem to write something that helps someone else out.
  

So there you have it: the things that help me feel better on a stressful day.

Well, all this plus a tall glass of wine, but I suppose I shouldn't recommend that willy nilly.