Stress Relief Alternatives For The Hectic Woman

By Joyce M. Stuart

Stress relief is now high on my schedule, and it's about time too. The only comfort is knowing that I'm not the only woman in the world who has discovered that finding time to relax and unwind is becoming increasingly difficult. But I've been growing aware of the fact that my health must come first sometimes, and so I have spent a little while exploring various stress relief therapies for women.

Perhaps I am not alone, but I must confess that my life has been so frantic that I've never really paused to think about the number of ways in which I could relax. Downing two or three glasses of wine every evening is clearly doing me no good at all, which is why I have been delighted to discover the wide range of stress relief options that are easily available.

One of the first ideas I came across was yoga, a popular method used by many women to relax, unwind and help get the body and mind in balance again. A lot of people think that yoga is all about standing on your head stretching your legs in three directions at once, but it's actually very relaxing, easy to get started with, and has physical and mental health benefits to offer.

In a similar stress relief category to yoga is meditation, though with slightly less limb tying involved. There are so many forms of meditation that it can be a little difficult just choosing which to try, but this is largely a matter of personal preference. I bought a meditation CD which played soothing music whilst a sonorous voice instructed me to focus on various parts of my body. It was very relaxing - in fact, I fell asleep.

A lot of women swear by physical exercise. Personally I just tend to swear at physical exercise. But my understanding is that those women who regularly undertake some form of exercise such as running, cycling or step aerobics find that it helps them unwind. It may not be relaxing, but stress relief isn't necessarily the same as being relaxed.

So after only a half hearted glance at the idea of stress relief through exercise my attention was turned towards women's toys. I have to say that we're certainly lucky these days to have so much variety available at the click of a button. Having purchased something not dissimilar in size to my kitchen rolling pin, and with more attachments than my food blender I was certainly able to demonstrate that stress took a back seat for as long as the batteries could hold out.

Relaxing music came next (after me!) and I spent some time gathering all of the relaxing music tracks I could find, and downloading them all onto my iPod. As portable as my woman's toy but rather more decent in public I just slip the headphones on and drift into a catatonic state of vacancy. It's certainly relaxing, although I find having my eyes shut and the mobile switched off helps.

Finally, the one method of stress relief I seem to find hardest of all - finding the time for plenty of rest. Just recently I have had almost no time for rest because I've been too busy researching the various stress relief alternatives, but along with eating healthily, getting plenty of sleep and organising 'me' time, there are certainly several alternatives available - it's just finding the time to try them out. - 31520

About the Author:

Sign Up for our Free Newsletter

Enter email address here