Stress Tip: "Recreation" (...Take another look at that word!)
By award-winning author and stress-relief expert Susie Mantell
At the end of the day, most find "attending to personal well-being" somewhere at the bottom of the list. While productivity and efficiency are admirable qualities, many find it virtually impossible to simply "Be", without "Doing". The result can be pervasive fatigue, never feeling you've "restored the system".
1. Set aside times each week to "re-create". Spend it doing something
thoroughly engaging, after which you feel real and alive and whole (and not Professional). This may take time to discover. Try adult ed. classes, read about areas of interest, or ask friends what THEY do recreationally.
(See back-issue of my newsletter titled, "70 Ways to Feels REALLY Good--Fast!")
2. If you must "Do", many find deeply soothing release in focusing intently on doing just one thing. (This explains the pleasure many experience in needlepoint ... running...or re-building an engine.) Try folding laundry or paying the bills as an exercise in mindfulness, focusing completely on the task at hand...
3. If you prefer company while sorting receipts, or washing dishes, call a friend. Make a phone date to hang out together organizing a junk drawer.
4. Peace of mind, a positive outlook, sense of adventure, exercise, meditation, conscious food choices and honest, supportive relationships all increase the "feel-good" factor, and in many cases enhance immunity, facilitate healing and promote physical and emotional health.
[Copyright 2000, 2008 Susie Mantell, Relax. . .Intuit (tm) LLC. All rights reserved.] Federal law prohibits use of this material in whole or in part without the express written consent of Relax...Intuit™ LLC. For Reprint Permission: Kindly email your request for guidelines, pasting in the full text of the specific article you wish to use, to info@relaxintuit.com We'll try to reply within 72 hrs.]
Award-winning stress-relief expert Susie Mantell ...is the author of the deeply soothing relaxation CD, "Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace,” clinically approved for symptoms associated with stress and sleeplessness, depression and grief, anxiety, P.T.S.D., Fibromyalgia, caregiver stress, cancer, pain, divorce and addiction recovery. Featured in The Los Angeles Times, NBC, ABC, CBS-TV, Town & Country, The American Pain Society, Hazelden and The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, listeners include The Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, The Betty Ford Center, V.A. Hospitals,and Canyon Ranch (#1 Spa.) Customizing stress-reduction for Fortune 500 companies, distinguished hospitals and spas, Mantell has facilitated thousands in relieving health-related, work-related, chronic or traumatic stress. Her multi-sensory, mind-body techniques appear in national media, medical and corporate publications. Susie Mantell's Stress-Relief & Wellness Tips are intended as an adjunct to, not a substitute for, professional health care. Order “Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace” and find more of Mantell’s stress-relief tips at www.relaxintuit.com
