Prompt # 32 - De-Stressing

Prompt # 32 - De-Stressing

My most frequent de-stresser is coffee. My favourite stress reducer is walking. And taking my camera for a walk. Nature. The colour green. My default stress reducer is food. This is not good. Plus I find cooking and baking relaxing. Maybe there's still hope. I used to enjoy beer and wine, but I don't do either any more.

I also watch television to relax, but I'm usually doing something else at the same time, like crocheting, or writing my genealogy prompts, or playing Scrabble or Solitaire on my laptop. My favourite show is Coronation Street and I hate when the CBC moves the time around without warning. I also watch the weekly re-runs every Sunday morning for two and a half hours. It's like having the illusion of community. And it gives us permission to gossip, because these people aren't real, so our judgments are not hurting anyone. Right? Like, you want to shake Tina and say No! No! Don't! (pursue a married man) because we like her, and because we know so much more about Peter Barlow (and about married men) than she does. When I watch the re-runs Sunday morning, that's when I do my ironing. (Sorry, Grandma. I am damned.) Ironing is another way for me to relax. It's one of those chores that allows you to see your progress. One pile goes down, the other pile goes up, and you can see what you have achieved in the end.

I know I need to de-stress when I am restless and when I cannot concentrate. Or, infrequently, before I fly and cannot sleep. I cope with this irrational fear, of change, of dying, by a bit of cognitive therapy.

What triggers my stress? Interruptions. My most frequent rant is “I'm working!” In other words, How dare you interrupt me? Advertisements on television are a trigger. Push the mute button, or stick to the Knowledge Network and PBS. Listening to the news too often. Big bills, especially taxes and insurance. Mess. Waste. Destruction, especially of nature, trees, living creatures. And bullying. Abuse. Meanness. I react. Even at this late stage, I haven't learned the “appropriate” response to someone who is being mean or abusive. Ignoring it, it seems to me, just enables the bully. What does work? I'd like to know.