Archery has been my biggest therapy this month. It has been said that nothing clears the troubled mind better than shooting a bow. I couldn't agree more. The combination of being outdoors in nature, hiking amongst the redwood trees in the most beautiful form of silence and focusing all of my concentration on hitting my target is the most wonderful form of stress relief I have yet to experience. Unfortunately, archery is not the type of sport that can be done anywhere or anytime you feel like it. This pushed me to find other ways to live more peacefully and maintain my cool in a stressful situation. The rest of the unnecessary stress elimination habits I acquired are super simple things that were easily added to my everyday life. Deep breathing relieved so much tension from my mind and is a valuable habit that can be used anywhere. My job can be physically demanding and very straining, putting a lot of stress on my body. I started doing stress relieving stretches every morning and found this to significantly reduce pain (along with the use of a heating pad), release a lot of the built up tension on my muscles and joints, and boost my energy level leading to an overall better day at work. Rushing to be somewhere usually leads to a stressful start of my day. By waking up and leaving just 5 minutes early I was able to fully eliminate this stressor. Of course, hitting snooze is a challenge I am still trying to overcome. Waking up earlier also allows for more time to sit and enjoy my breakfast instead of scarfing it down while heading for the door. Eating healthier is a concept I just started focusing more attention on. I don't eat terribly, but I have always been a sucker for fried, greasy, sugary, horrible, yet delicious foods. I started drinking a fruit smoothie for breakfast every morning, snacking on more fruits and veggies during the day and packing a healthier lunch and found this to be a great way to prevent burnout and recharge for the rest of the day. I look forward to my morning smoothie so much and I'm always eager to try a new recipe! (If you have a favorite, please post it in the comments). I also tried guided sleep meditation for a couple of nights before bed. I usually have no trouble falling asleep and adding these videos didn't necessarily change the time it took me to fall asleep or the quality of sleep that I was having. For this reason, I decided meditation was something that I needed to approach much differently; however, I am still figuring out how I want to do that.
This month I learned that the key to eliminating as much stress from my life as possible is to first identify the things (or people) that activate my stress responses. I tried to make as many small feasible changes to my routine as I could handle and I attempted to separate myself from difficult people enough to make them manageable. I realized that there were a lot of great anti-stress habits that I was already utilizing everyday. One of my personal favorites is getting fresh air during work lunch breaks. Lunch breaks provide an opportunity to step out of a hectic work environment, get some sun, and make a phone call to catch up with someone who you know will contribute to the positivity of your day. If you decide to try any of these habits, I would highly recommend this one be it.
Stay tuned for March's post about my month of living without alcoholic beverages.
