Recap

I've decided it's time to post an organized list of reminders of stress relievers I've suggested thus far. Here's the gist of it:

Organization

Optimism

Making yourself laugh

Good food

Good friends

Chai (my favorite)

Stress balls

Relaxation

Staying healthy

Good music

Straying from routine

Sudoku

Time management

Aromatherapy

Going with the flow

Getting a pet

This can be thought of as a contribution to your life's organization and time management. Realize when you look at this list that none of those ideas are difficult to achieve. Sure, time management is hard to manage at times, but sticking with it has proven well worth the effort, right? Other than that, most of the suggestions I've posted about are just enjoyable things, even if you're not trying to relieve stress.

I'm going to turn this in to a motivational post, in addition to a recap. I'm also going to reiterate that practical thinking and not stressing about being stressed are really important! If you let day-to-day annoyances get to you, you'll have a problem when something beyond a typical stressor affects your life. So try to manage everyday stress if you can. Look at how easy the suggestions listed above are! If you can end the day happy and relaxed by trying out methods as simple as those, do it! Then you get to wake up happy and avoid stress mounting throughout the week. It just makes sense to give everyday stress relief a shot. 

If anything, just take a moment to mentally organize. Might seem kind of unimaginative, but think practically about the common phrase "It could be worse." Everyone says it, but people don't usually really put in into perspective. Maybe it will motivate you or remind you that you might not need to be as stressed as you feel.

The perks of pets!

This is probably one of the stress relievers that comes with the most fun. Get a pet! (Dogs are my preference, but to each his own.) Check out one Newsweek article that describes some of the benefits:

"Pet ownership is good for your health both physically and psychologically," says Connecticut psychologist Herbert Nieburg, author of "Pet Loss: A Thoughtful Guide for Adults and Children" (HarperCollins).

I was never really too much of an animal person until a few years ago. When I left for college my family got a dog with the first couple weeks I was gone. Clearly I was easily replaced, right? But I've definitely come to love my replacement. She really does have a presence and, oddly enough to say, kind of a personality. The companionship she offers is obvious, especially when I watch my dad or brother interact with her. Even seeing other people love a dog is uplifting! It also feels great to get such an enthusiastic greeting every time I walk in a room and especially when I go back home on breaks. My dog has come to be one of the things I miss most when I'm at school, which is surprising of some who has never been an animal person and doesn't really take an unlikely sentiment to any kind of extreme.

In addition to some good company, pets offer a physical benefit, as mentioned in the Newsweek article. Just getting up and moving or exercising with a pet will improve your physical state. Playing with a pet is a good time and physical health perk. And, of course, when you feel good physically you'll feel better mentally and emotionally. Coming home from work to a pet ready to play or just lay on your feet is definitely a stress reliever after a long day.

Also, a WebMD article notes another important benefit to having a pet: they're date magnets! Dogs draw attention on walks, and pets are great conversation topics. A good date probably lets you feel the opposite of stress. So if a lacking love life is causing you stress, try using your pet to relieve it.

Chance

Today, I explored a store called Home & Planet I've passed dozens of times right off of Lehigh's campus but never entered. It is an eco-friendly, artsy-but-practical store that sells pretty much everything, all made from recycled materials. I thought it was be a typical hipster store with the obvious handbags and crafted jewelry and stuff, but I was proven wrong. Everything seemed to be pretty high quality and came with an interesting back story. A few pieces of furniture caught my eye when I walked in, and turns out material from the historic Bethlehem Steel Mill just down the road from Lehigh contributed to those pieces. I love Bethlehem's history, so I happily wasted some time learning about other pieces from the friendly owner, who seemed almost as interesting as his products.

This quick adventure made my day, which followed a nearly sleepless night due to a heavy workload, which followed an episode of food poisoning the previous day. Needless to say I was stressed and in an all around bad mood. But my mood has very much turned around and I attribute this to my enjoyable visit to Home & Planet, which was made possible by one of the assignments weighing down on my mind a little. Maybe it was the art I look at, the conversation I had or that the place seemed like something my mom would like. Not exactly sure what cheered me up, but it worked!

I'll get to my point now. I did nothing to get myself out of my funk, but it happened, just like it always does. This type of pick-me-up is something I usually forget about, and you probably do, too. Sure I'll have a bad day or even week, but something ALWAYS turns it around. And this something just falls into my lap more often than I realize. I've mentioned talking to a friend or watching a funny show in previous posts, but maybe you should just let your mood run its course and not stress about being stressed. The type of daily stress I'm trying to address with these posts doesn't last forever, even if it feels like it might. Things around you change, so your mood is going to change.

So expect the unexpected stress reliever that's not even in your control, and look forward to it!

Aromatherapy

A used up candle I just threw out inspires this post. It had an aromatherapy label on it that I never noticed before, so I guess I went through a little therapy session each of the dozens of time I lit it.

Intrigue led me to look up some aromatherapy information, and I decided I like the idea of it. There is a wide range of candles and oils to choose from and most allegedly serve several purposes, including anti depressant, anti microbial, anti septic, circulatory, digestive, nervous relaxant and a ton more. A few methods exist to make aromatherapy work, too. If you don’t prefer rubbing oils on your body, you can always resort to lighting a candle or burning incense. In oil form you can also eat it. I think the easiest option is to set an aromatherapy diffuser, sticks that sit in oil and diffuse its scent, on a side table and let it work its magic. I suggest looking into this cheap therapy because at the very least you end up with a room that smells good. Maybe that in itself would lift your spirits.

Specifically, I recommend jasmine oil. Several websites give it a five out of five rating on the aromatherapy scale, and it’s listed as a stress reliever. I don’t imagine it would be a very strong or obnoxious smell, and it is a scent easily combined with others.

Test out some scents, try out this really easy fix to feeling stressed after a long day!

Thanks Lehigh InSTALLment!

Lehigh University's Health and Wellness Center puts monthly flyers in the stalls of most bathrooms on campus that offer tips, trivia and facts intended to maintain, you guessed it, health and wellness. This month's InSTALLment included the "8 Time Management Skills for College Students" section found below, and looking over it I decided all of the eight bolded tips can certainly be applied to a broader crowd than just college students.

In fact, I've already suggested a couple of the InSTALLment's ideas as stress relievers, including organization and relaxation. Read through the list of time management skills. If you're not a college student just sub in aspects of your busy schedule where research papers and tests are mentioned.

These tips might seem simple and obvious, but how many of them do you actually live by? I've definitely gone through periods of great time management and others when I just neglect it. So trust me, these tips are worth practicing. Things like cramming and disorganization stress me out as a college student, but I've seen that affect my professors and parents at times, too.

I recommend implementing the "8 Time Management Skills for College Students [or anyone]" for a couple weeks. None should be too difficult to begin, and if it is, you're doing something wrong. After you get the hang of time management, I bet you notice reduced stress and an easier day-to-day routine!

SUDOKO

I'm a huge fan of sudoko as a life saving logic game as of about five hours ago.

I was perfectly fine with waking up for an early flight and excited to get back to school this afternoon. Within minutes of sitting down on the plan I fell comfortably asleep and expected to wake up if just a couple hours in Philadelphia, where I would board a 20 minute flight to Bethlehem, Pa. Didn't quite work out as planned.

I did indeed wake up in a couple hours, but I found the plane in the same spot I left it when I fell asleep. I didn't wake up to the first attempt at take-off, ice being sprayed off the plane or announcements about the delay. At least I got a good nap in. Unfortunately, this delay was just long enough to prevent me from getting the connecting flight to Bethlehem I initially booked. But I didn't mind at this point because I don't mind traveling and I was told I could just get on the next flight out. I did, however, mind when I got off the plane in Philly and realized the next flight to Bethlehem was just over five hours later. I had work to tend to that required notes that were in my room at school, I wanted to catch the Super Bowl, and I just wanted to see everyone I was away from for the weekend. I survived these little bothers, but what really got me was the boredom.

Maybe this doesn't count as an everyday type of stressor, but it was really annoying. After alittle while, I found a little book of sudoko games in my carry-on that had been left there from a previous flight, and I didn't know just how much I would appreciate it at that time. That game of logic actually preoccupied me for hours. It entertained me and distracted me from what would have been frustrating boredom that feel like a huge waste of time. Luckily, I enjoyed my delay of relaxing with a few boards of sudoko. Although it's not really worthwhile productivity, I boarded my short flight back to school quite content.

So. I suggest applying sudoko to stress. At the end of the day just focus on a game, and let me know if it's can be considered another stress reliever. After providing me such joy, I imagine it will be. You can also try solitaire or any other logic game that might provide some calm by distracting you from the day's stress.

Briefly relocate

I am currently at junior in college at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Yes, these may very well be "the best years of my life," but that doesn't mean everything goes on without a hitch. Balancing the academics and social life offered at Lehigh is both a privilege and a feat. This, in addition to work, financial concerns, personal issues, internship applications, missing everyone studying abroad, thinking about the rapidly approaching future, etc., can definitely stress a girl out. My quick fix at school is usually something like a good work out or a long nap. 

With the vast majority of my close friends studying in Europe this spring, I correctly predicted that I would need a bigger pick-me-up than usual at this point in the semester. This is where I took the extreme measure of booking a flight home to Chicago, Ill. for a Thursday-Sunday weekend, and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

I am writing this from my bed in Chicago, and I don't know where to begin with my explanation of how my family, my neighborhood, my home, my childhood friends were the perfect stress relievers. Although I live in Bethlehem about nine months out of the year, my home is still my home. 

This type of stress relief might not be found in everyone's house or hometown. Maybe you just need a location away from whatever you're wrapped up in to think about yourself in the big picture from a different perspective. This is a place that offers a sense of comfort and belonging like no other place can, even if you don't know the other people in this place. I'm reminded of how I've changed, how I've stayed the same, the reasons I've become who I am, my monumental mistakes and achievements, and I can go on forever about what my home represents. Thinking space can be found anywhere you're comfortable, and I highly, highly recommend using it.

This is hard to do when you let things build up or fall into a stressful routine. And, sure, I'm not happy about the cost of the flights between Bethlehem and Chicago, but I just felt an impulsive need (very unlike me) to go home, so I did. The opportunity to step out of what has become my norm and think about things from a comfortable place was well worth the money. I will get on my flight tomorrow morning excited to get back to Lehigh with a solid sense of self, organized thoughts and a refreshed motivation. Thank you, home, for clearing my mind and curing my stress!