In the Middle of...STRESS!

How many of you are stresser-outers?

Show of hands! Be honest now!

Yep, that's me. Almost to an OCD level. I obsess over what I stress about. I get fixated. It becomes the only thing in the world to me. All the rest of life fades to the background. All of my attention goes to surviving whatever the stress is, beating the situation if possible, and imagining 1,234,463 possible outcomes.

I'm working to get better about stress. In fact, just this afternoon, an awesome lady gave me to stress-beating techniques to use today and over the next few days as an issue gets worked on in my life.

The first was a reintroduction to a stress ball. Simple little bugger - but I forgot how awesome it was to squish the squishies right out of that ball repeatedly. It really works! I'm sure you have a stress ball tossed away in the back drawer or closet somewhere in your house. Go find it and squish with me!

The other was a breathing technique. Put your left hand on your stomach. Put your right hand on your chest. Now breathe in through your nose as slowly and deeply as you can, expanding out your stomach. Hold that breath for a five count. Finally, purse your lips and blow out that breath very slowly. Do that about 5 times. There, don't you feel calmer already?

I'm going to be practicing my stress-busting techniques tomorrow and possibly for several days after. If you're going through stress in your own life, perhaps you can get some relief from these techniques as well!

It sucks being in the middle of stress...but sometimes, that's just life!