At times like these I look at my "draft" blog posts. I've got nearly 100 of them. Many of them are simply a link that I've found and pasted into a blog post for future use. Here's one I found recently: http://www.alifeoverseas.com/managing-stress-overseas/
This is simply one person's list of what she and her family are doing to keep stress under control in their household in Indonesia (she's quite a mix of cultures herself). It includes sleep, hobbies, exercise, and thankfulness.
The question she ended her list with was: "How about you? What routines have you found helpful in managing stress?"
Well, here's my current list in no particular order, and probably not exhaustive:
- try not to look at email after dinner
- try to get regular exercise, including bike rides to parks with my camera
- get to bed before 10 most night
- rest in bed on Sunday afternoons
- do at least one card game (Spider) on my phone each day, sometimes I also get to do a Sudoku challenge and Words with Friends games
- schedule evening meals, including one or preferably two left-over-type meals
- read good books before falling asleep
- watch a TV episode with my husband in the evening
- take time regularly to have coffee with friends
- meet about once a month with a good friend over Skype
- take time to recalibrate spiritually on my own at a coffee shop when I need to (mini retreat)
- go camping periodically
- take holidays during the summer and at Christmas
- get massages and don't feel guilty about that
- get out of Tokyo when we can
- not feel guilty at saying no to things that I know I'm not good at
- try to burrow back in my thoughts and figure out why I feel upset, or angry, or unsettled, or any upset of my usual balance (it's usually a small trigger, but figuring it out is helpful)
- writing this blog!
Phew. That's a lot. Am I high maintenance?
I've been struggling with headaches this week. I'm not exactly sure why. I have many triggers for headaches, including stress but I don't feel especially stressed at present. I hope that next week is better.
So, what about you? What do you do to manage stress? (You don't need to write as detailed a list as mine!)
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