Last week’s post:
1. Puzzles
2. Thinning out the list
3. Valerian root
4. Smoothies
This week’s post:
5. Lavender stuff (photo from BathAndBodyWorks.com). This is similar to the superfoods thing: I have FAITH IN THE RELAXING POWERS OF LAVENDER, and so even if it’s NOT working, it works because it makes me feel like I’m DOING something, I’m FIXING it. Plus, anything that instructs me to inhale deeply is going to help.
6. Doing each thing in the right time frame (photo from Amazon.com). If I write when there are kids around, it takes me about five times as long to do the same amount of work as if I write when there are no kids around—and as I’m taking five times as long, I’m also snapping and resenting and feeling awful. So it can’t/doesn’t always work out this way, but I try to organize things as much as possible so that I can do each task at the right time for that task: writing when the kids are in school or otherwise occupied; cleaning when a child is following me around chatting; errands when I have to be out anyway; etc. This system can also be soothing when I’m feeling like my To Do list is urgent and lengthy: as each task presents itself to my mind, I can think, “Yes, and that’s scheduled for right after I take Henry to kindergarten,” or whatever.
(If “Do things at the best time to do them” is a duh concept to you, I’ll hope you’ll be gentle: it’s only recently that I noticed it, and I still have to actively work to remember it. I keep finding myself near tears because I can’t! get! anything! DONE!!!—and then realizing it’s because I’ve got the tasks/times lined up wrong: I’m trying to write an email when a child wants attention, or I’m trying to do an errand when I could be by myself in the house.)
7. At least half an hour before bed of not doing anything that needs to be done. This is one I’ve heard a million times but have trouble implementing: pretty often it happens that I get all caught up in something and then suddenly realize it’s bedtime. But I’m trying to do better on this, because if I can instead spend the last half hour reading a book, doing puzzles, or playing solitaire, I feel so much better: so much less mind-spinning when I’m trying to sleep, and so much less of that horrible, cyclical, “And now I go to sleep and IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN IN THE MORNING” feeling.
7. Shopping at Target (photo from target.com). I find this very soothing, almost meditative: following my same paths through the store, while at the same time checking things off my to-do list (prescription ran out, spinach ran out, the children broke the sieve).
8. Books that are interesting, but not TOO interesting (photo from Amazon.com). When I’m feeling low and bluesy, I want a very distracting and absorbing book: a Stephen King, maybe. But if I’m feeling stressed, an interesting book makes me feel like I’ve got to get back to it, and makes my workload feel all the more burdensome because it’s preventing me from reading. But a book can be soothing if it’s the right level of distracting: just right for the half an hour before bed, but doesn’t sit there making me wish I were reading it instead of what I actually have to do.
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There. What are your best stress-managing techniques? I could use more options in the rotation.
That’s a new idea for me, dividing books up by interest level. I tend to divide them up by chapter length and often have two going at once. I read the long chaptered books when I have a decent chunk of time and the short-chaptered ones when I have a little scrap of time.
StephLove | October 24th, 2012 at 11:51 am
I have been taking Fish Oil/Omega-3 supplements, and they seem to help stabilize my mood a bit (they also keep my eyes from getting all dried out, strangely enough).
I do a lot of the things you do, and in addition to mapping out my to-do list by times, when I have a zillion errands to do I also organize the list in geographical order — like, post office, then Whole Foods, then stationery store, etc. It helps me to picture where I’m going to go and in what order.
Sometimes if I’m feeling so overwhelmed that I’m about to mentally combust, I take a brief break to write an email to a friend or read a few blogs. Just 5-10 minutes of that can center me enough to tackle all my tasks again.
Lawyerish | October 24th, 2012 at 9:31 pm
I think lavender really works, FWIW. Getting outside really helps me. A quick walk around the block, or puttering in the garden (I’m not a gardener but even I pull weeds every now and then) while the kids play makes me feel a lot better.
Anonymous | October 25th, 2012 at 12:34 am
Sooo these things (music & wine) are popular and this is not news, but I offer you specifics:
1) Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, Moods of New Orleans album and
2) red wine
I have noticed that when the hubbin is out for the evening and it’s just me making dinner for the kids that putting this album on at low volume and starting with Track 1 and pouring a 3/4 inch pre-dinner glass of red wine while I fetch food for the children makes me feel much, much, much calmer. (”Can we listen to the Diego album instead?” “Absolutely not.”)
Frondly | October 26th, 2012 at 2:16 am