What do you do to De Stress

Me too cheelu. Vigorous activity makes thinking difficult.

Two glass of red and I cant think

Just me and my dogs out for a walk.

I like the thought you you defiantly walking Cheelu walking is the one for me too. I did smile to myself the other day - went to a seminar on 'Mindfulness' and midway through I realised that my version of 'being in the moment' is concentrating on a tricky knitting pattern or baking something where I need to carefully follow the recipe. I haven't read it yet, but the author Marian Keyes (I think) has written a book about how she baked her way out of depression.

Working in my garden.

Playing in the garden, with the dog.

Or retreating to my inner imagination and living a different life.

Gardening, walking the dogs or baking. They all work for me.

writing lyrics is good for me (am musician) Reading/doing crosswords

glass or two I'm with you on that one! Had a 'couple' of glasses of elderberry wine tonight - am feeling perfectly relaxed now

goose my other vice for stress is scrubbing...... but I try to avoid doing that too often.

Is scrubbing a vice, glass? I've always suspected it was....

Going to "bodypump" classes at my local LA Fitness. The music is great, it strenghens my bones and I feel totally relaxed (probably knackered is the correct word!!) afterwards. Very empowering!!

nag

Pottering on the piano, hill walking, but most of all, fishing - if I can't get to the water, I just standing in the garden casting a fly line onto the grass. A good cast is a lovely thing to see and very satisfying to perform.....

My 6- year old grandson is your soul mate arty he spends hours sitting in a stool by my 'water feature' (as MrDog likes to call it) with a cooked sausage, tied to the end if a piece of string which in turn is tied to a stick. He says he's fishing too.

I'd better not read your post to my DH, artygran, he'll want to marry you.

I'm a scrubber too glass! It's involuntary but I always find myself cleaning the kitchen when thinks get tough. I would prefer to go for a walk but I can't seem to stop cleaning for long enough!

Grab a piece of chipped pottery (always plenty in our house), go outside and chuck it at a stone wall. Tells the family to stop pushing without my needing to say a word. I leave the shards where they land.

PS I've done this fewer than five times in my life (just in case you all think I'm bonkers)

Well, I know you think that anyway....

Retirement reduced my stress in one fell swoop!. I do things like gardening, listening to music, talking with friends or family, cleaning the kitchen. One effective way of dispelling built up tension, for me, is to have a bloody good scream and shout in the privacy of my car. It does wonders for bringing calm and a feeling of peace. It's some months since I have done that, though

Anyone under regular stress should try joining a community choir - there are now loads round the country - singing is very good therapy!

If only, Mishap. But if you can't sing in tune, what then?

They are usually big choirs and no-one minds - really!! No auditions; just get stuck in and enjoy. Singing is for everyone, not just the musically gifted! That is exactly what these choirs are about.

I run a community choir and there are people in there who claimed not to sing in tune who are now doing brilliantly!

Mishap, you haven't heard me sing! A very musically gifted friend once said the same thing as you and she offered to teach me for Lent. On Good Friday she admitted defeat. I can hear the melody all right but I cannot reproduce the note. I can hear that sound I make is wrong, but I can't put it right.

I believe the reason is that I had severe mastoiditis when I was three. I know that that is the critical age when the brain develops its musical awareness and I think the synapses never closed.