At line dancing exercise class last
week, our fearless leader, Ruth, said that line dancing was her way to relieve stress
and take her mind off her troubles.
“That’s what it does for me too!” I
said. “No matter how bad a day I might have, I leave here in good spirits.”
Part of the reason is that while I
exercise, I have to concentrate on the steps. By focusing on the dance, I empty
my mind of all the troubling thoughts that may have been plaguing me.
This month was our annual “take me
away” Girl’s Trip for my mom, my sisters, and me. Our short vacation was a
relaxing kind of busy. Still, it must have tired me out, since I spent the
entire first day back in my PJ’s doing absolutely nothing beyond eating and
breathing.
I haven’t figured out how to live
without a certain amount of stress, but retirement alleviated a lot of it. Now,
I seldom have a headache, while it used to be an almost daily event. Even so, I
have too many things to do and not enough hours in the day to accomplish them.
Here it is, almost Halloween, and I’ve
yet to put up my fall decorations. I planned on doing that three weeks ago, but
it just hasn’t happened. I used my decorations at the October SBW meeting, and
until Wednesday, I still had them in the trunk of my car. Now, at least, I’ve
brought them inside, and they are currently on the dining room table.
I have been a wee bit busy lately.
I thought after the craziness of September that October would be a little more
laid-back. Instead, my calendar is stacked, double stacked, and occasionally
triple-stacked.
This last week has been Business
Women’s Week with daily activities. Fortunately, some of the events were simply
stress-busters too. One night was “relaxation night” and I participated in a
Zumba class. Another night, we played Bunco with a lot of laughter and
visiting. Dinners and luncheons were an opportunity to spend time with my
friends.
Yesterday was the second day this
month that I didn’t have something on my calendar. That doesn’t mean I didn’t
do anything. I caught up on some of my accounting, updated a website, and
helped with plans for the Alzheimer’s Symposium that Congresswoman Hartzler is
hosting in Sedalia on November 10.
I will present a program on “Caregiver
Emotions” at the symposium. I’ve given this program three times before—once at
the Senior Center in Warsaw, for the Men’s Support Group in Columbia, and for
family members who had loved ones in a nursing home. By addressing the
individual emotions, a caregiver can alleviate caregiver stress.
Managing stress is a crucial step
toward staying healthy. Left unchecked, stress can leave you vulnerable to high
blood pressure, acid reflux, blurred vision, irritability, and problems with
concentration. Caregivers tend to ignore their own health problems, which can
lead to the caregiver dying before his loved one.
The last few months of ugly
political rhetoric has created stress for a lot of us. Social media has turned
into a firestorm of disagreement, meanness, name-calling, and wild stories re-tweeted
and shared as if they were the gospel. I can only hope and pray that after the
election, people will rebuild the bridges they’ve burned with their family and
loved ones.
Now is the time for all of us to
look for those “take me away” moments. I find it totally relaxing to sit on the
deck drinking coffee and conversing with the dog. Reading a good book is
another way of getting away from the day-to-day stress that creeps up on me.
Hallmark movies, the Voice, and reruns of the Golden Girls saw me through many
stressful moments. Laughter is the best stress buster, and I’ve found that the
old truism “Laughter is the best medicine” is undeniably true!
Copyright © October 2016 by L.S.
Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
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