And more about stress relief

In honor of yesterday’s post, I decided to look up how other people relieve stress.  I did a search on Yahoo Answers (yes, I like using this medium), and was not surprised to see that this question has been asked before.  Many times.

Physical activity comes out on top.  What kind of physical activity, you ask?  ALL kinds… from walking, to yoga, to sex (and that one came on top, too).  Many others cited quiet time activities like reading, massage, tv, simply doing nothing at all, etc.  There were a lot of crude answers I won’t share here, but they definitely got points for being colorful.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• Here’s a comment that I swear my husband wrote: “In no particular order: Scotch, sex, spending a few hours on a combat pistol range with my favorite 'therapist' (a ParaOrdinance P45.15), throwing myself out of an airplane, or trying to pull the wings off of one.”
• “Harassing people who ask stupid questions on Yahoo Answers. Or taking a huge dump. It's a close call.”
• This person reminded me of my dad: “don't laugh,,,but I like to build model cars,,it takes my mind off what is bothering me,,makes me think about what i'm doing,,such small detail,,I like to paint everything,,the gauges on the dash board,radio buttons,,,the lug nuts on the wheels,,it really makes me concentrate,,so I forget about the day I've had,,specially if it was a bad day,seems to work for me!”
•  “I take two eggs and roll them in my hands like stress balls.  But I'd love to try destroying a room.”
• “Putting on the music loud.  The landlady comes to complain. We start quarrelling. I`m shouting at her, she`s shouting back, I`m blaming her for every single evil on earth, she`s threatening she will raise my rent or kick me out of the house. Then all of a sudden I become quite. I realize my problems are nothing compared to walking homeless as a street dog, my aggression and frustration are relieved by speaking out , so I give her a kiss plus a piece of cake and I`m the old me again.  If it doesn`t work, try kickboxing:)  Seriously, don`t hide anything in yourself, just say it all aloud. There will be always someone to listen and help.”

Stress relief is very obviously necessary.  Without it, we’d all go bonkers, and, dare I say it, the Human Race would no longer exist.  We would have killed each other to extinction long ago.  I should think that more people need to better handle their stress.  I know I’m one of them, and I know that I don’t manage it nearly as well as I could.  But seriously, wouldn’t life be much more simple if everyone could find his/her specific pressure relief valve and use it on a regular basis?  Is this a no-brainer, and if so, why haven’t we all caught on?   

Suffice it to say that while I do get stress relief from writing, I could use a bit more physical activity.  I think I’ll up the ante on that particular item.  In fact, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get the stress out of my life… one step at a time.