We all have stress in our lives, work, family, traffic, health issues, relationships, etc… It is hard to juggle everything in your day to day life and also deal with the stress that comes with it all. I know when I am stressed it makes my joints hurt, I get knots in my back and neck, headaches, and I am so irritable.

At my last job, I was a sounding board for the people who came into the office. You know the saying, “the customer is always right”. I had to listen and deal with whatever that person needed to say or yell about. It didn’t matter how I was feeling or what was going on in my life, I had to smile and help the customer. Some days it was very difficult to deal with. Sometimes I would eat chocolate to relieve the stress. There are many things that can be a natural stress relief. I am going to break it down into four parts that help me.

Meditation – Relaxation For Your Body and Mind

Meditation techniques are something that I can learn from reading a book, video’s, or learning the technique from the Maharishi himself. I learned the Maharishi technique years ago. This technique can be expensive. This is what my meditation consists of each day.

• I meditate for 20 minutes a day, twice a day. I meditate once in the morning and once in the evening.
• My bedroom is my quiet room and no animals are allowed. Animals can interfere with my meditation by making noise and also take away from my experience by absorbing the energy from my meditation.
• I close my eyes and repeat a mantra. As I repeat the mantra, it would take me into a deep transcendental state.
• I wake up refreshed. There were times when I would end up falling asleep and that was okay. I obviously needed it.

It really helped me get through each day and deal with anything that was stress related. It also made me feel good, so I wanted to exercise. Exercise makes me feel good physically as well as mentally. Mediating really relaxed and rejuvenated my mind and body.

Health – Weight Loss Can Be Tricky

When I was growing up I never had a weight problem. I was always thin, could eat anything and never gained weight. If I did gain weight, all I had to do was walk and it fell right off. It was great! As I grew older and hit my late 40s it all changed. It was hard to accept that I could no longer just eat what I wanted and the weight would not go up. I know that being stressed can prevent me from losing weight. Having hypothyroidism (sluggish thyroid) can also make it extremely hard to lose weight. My thyroid medication has to be adjusted and blood work has to be drawn to make sure I am taking the correct dosage. I am now taking something for hormones. This is all taking a while to make sure the doses are working. There are a number of health problems that can do this. The good thing is I am losing weight by walking our steps doing chores. I am also riding our incumbent bike. I walk outside when the weather permits. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It may take a little time to adjust medications and exercise to see some results in my weight, but it is worth it to be healthy.

Exercise – The Joy of Walking the Dog

I don’t know about you, but exercise is not always fun. Especially if I am pressed for time. On the other hand, once I get started it can energize me and make me feel so good. Walking is a good way to get started if you haven’t exercised in a while. While you are at it, why not take the dog for a walk at the same time. They love that! My dog is attached to my hip like a child. He loves to go out for a walk. While I walk my dog I usually run into someone walking or a neighbor who tells me how cute my dog is. His name is Troy and he is a Shih tzu/Bichon mix (Teddy Bear) dog. He is a cutie! He loves the attention. Troy is such a joy and good company. By walking my dog I get exercise, he gets exercise, it is good for our health and we are in good company.

Dance – How Fun It is

This is my absolute favorite stress reliever and I feel happy when doing it. I love to dance! When I was growing up I had a friend who lived up the street and we would dance at her house. Her older sister knew all the dance moves because she went out to the night clubs. Her sister would teach us line dances. Every week I would go to her house and her sister would teach us a different line dance. She would also teach us dance moves. It was so much fun! Eventually I grew up and moved out on my own. I would turn up my stereo in my apartment and dance while I cleaned. It made it easier to do. Cleaning is never fun. When I turned 21 I was able to get into night clubs and started going to a local one every weekend with a group of friends. We would meet up at the night club and get a table. When the music started we would all get up and dance. We were always the first ones on the floor. It was so much fun. We danced, talked and laughed all night. Imagine the calories burned and the stress that was forgotten those nights.

Natural Stress Relief, Bring On the Chocolate!

As far as I am concerned, natural stress relief is the way to go. There are different things you can do to relieve stress. Some ways are, meditation, exercise, dancing, and talking to someone about what is bothering you. I know some times just a simple hug can make the stress melt away. I would give my friend a hug every day when I saw her. She told me she needed that and misses it. She also told me she misses being able to talk to me when something is bothering her. We were at work every day and she knew I would listen if she needed to talk. It is worth it to have someone I can rely on to listen or give me a hug when I need it. You need to get that stress out so it doesn’t affect you health wise.

I don’t know about you, but when I came home after a day at work and my dog met me at the door so happy to see me with kisses, that was the best part of my whole day. He would be at the door waiting and wouldn’t leave me alone until I hugged him and gave him a big smooch. He brings so much joy into my life. He senses when I am not feeling well and he is there for me. Troy lies beside me and keeps me company.

Not everyone meditates or dances, but I will tell you that meditation or something you can do to calm your mind and body is a great thing to do. Dancing is just getting up and moving to the music. Everyone has their own way of dancing. If you have kids and put some music on, I bet they would love to dance around with you. What great exercise that would be. I don’t have kids, so I get up and move by myself and my family laughs. Maybe I need to rent some kids, lol! After I am done I reward myself by saying,” bring on the chocolate”!