Dealing with Stress

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I have a wide array of techniques I use and I rarely need to use more than a handful:

• locate physical tension in my muscles and make them loosen up by tensing and then relaxing them
• adopting the posture of a relaxed person as though I was an actor trying to convince an audience (whether or not people are around)
• breathing from the belly deeply (like Cram suggested)
• searching my brain for times that I had uncontrollable fits of laughter and reliving the experiences
• doing a few different varieties of push-ups and a few different varieties of sit-ups (a martial arts teacher claimed this was all the workout you needed)
• brainstorming a way to make the people around me laugh
• a strong drink
• pretending I had several strong drinks
• acknowledging the fact that stress in certain quantities is quite beneficial, and then trying to identify how I would know I'm experiencing this sweet spot
• find someone or a group of people that appear to be quite genuinely relaxed and mimicing their behaviors as accurately as possible (thank you mirror neurons)
• trying to relax my upper eyelids so I appear stoned/gangsta/cool as hell and trying to maintain it with a straight face as long as possible
• converting my internal voice very gradually into a voice that is smooth and relaxing, not so different from cheesy "smooth jazz" DJs
• cycling through my sensory channels and paying careful attention to what they are picking up, I don't know why, but this is one of the most effective techniques for me - it goes something like this: my feet pressing against the ground, my ass pressing against the couch, my clothes loosely pressing against my body, the sound of the computer keys clicking as I type, the sound of my daughter fussing in the other room, the sound of my partner soothing her, the sight of the rug in my peripheral vision, the sight of my hands moving as I type, the cursor slowly flitting across the screen with each keystroke, the smell of the mountain lingering in my clothes, the smell of my home that is almost unnoticable but comforting, the smell of wet wool from the rain, the feeling of my leg's position in space, the angle of my spine relative to the ground, the angle of my skull in relation to my spine and the ground, and so on...

That's what I have just off the top of my head.

[Fujikoma]

I just drink 'till the pain goes away, most of the time, though.

[Reeducation]

I sing. Usually it's all improvisation. Works for me and my daughter likes to hear it. (Wife does not, but that's because our musical tastes are different, really)

[Nast]

I just drink 'till the pain goes away, most of the time, though.

That's not good.

[Fujikoma]

Yeah, I get that a lot, Nast. But that's how it is sometimes, or, rather, everyday.

No, it's not good. Did you read my previous post for dealing with stress? Keeps me from drinking so much.

EDIT: Though the lovecraftian squid proposes some good advise which, while tailored to his individual situation, could be helpful.

[Triple Zero]

I stress about the fact that I'm stressing and then I pass out and wake up with chronic muscle spasms. Which I then stress about dealing with.

Halp.

Awesome, I gotta try this some times. I already can do a few of those steps, but I think I need to practice on the passing out bit.

And then you keep repeating the cycle until the stress is gone, yeah?

[Richter]

I try to find a productive, neutral activity.  Like cleaning, running at the gym, or simple hand sewing.  It gives me something to focus on enough to take my brian out of "Stew and stress" mode.  It also minimizes the amount of things I can fuck up and continue to get frustrated at.  If I tried to peen rivets, my brain would escalate more if I messed up, for example.  I also avoid taking any of the stress to martial arts practice.  In that mindset, I may agro on a sparring partner (No external signs, from dead halt to "KILL THE FUCKER." ), or get pissed at my own performance too easily.   
An activity with less change of critical failure and visible result lets me work off the bad headspace while putting out something that makes me feel better about things.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I stress about the fact that I'm stressing and then I pass out and wake up with chronic muscle spasms. Which I then stress about dealing with.

Halp.

Awesome, I gotta try this some times. I already can do a few of those steps, but I think I need to practice on the passing out bit.

And then you keep repeating the cycle until the stress is gone, yeah?

Basically yeah; you wear yourself out so badly that you don't have the energy to be stressed anymore and your body and brain let go out of exhaustion.


Although one thing that I do which I find relaxing is shuckling, or swaying back and forth while in a prayerful state of mind. Since I'm not actually Jewish/religious at all, I'm just meditating when I do it, but it's effective.

[Jasper]

NEW METHOD

Reminding myself that a thing need not be fun to be fun.  So far, high success rate.