by: Paul Evans
There are many things we can do to relieve stress, ranging from small routine changes (such as avoiding rush hour traffic) to large drastic life changes (such as quitting our stressful jobs!).
At the smaller end of the scale, I believe one of the best ways that you can relieve stress is to 'get creative'.
What can you do to get creative? Anything you like, as long as 'you' do the creating!
It could be physical or mental creativity (preferably both), big or small. For example, is it about time you changed your garden around? Changed those dull old patio slabs? Now would be a good idea to get creative.
To relieve stress you have to do something you can be proud of. You need to be able to stand back and say to yourself, `Yep, I did that and I did a terrific job'.
Take the example above, if you're not physically able (and would have to employ someone to do the labouring for you) you could still design the garden yourself! Teach yourself a little about landscape gardening and design the best garden you can. If you are able to labour for yourself, design and build it entirely yourself! And most important of all, give yourself a pat on the back once you've finished and be proud of your hard work.
But it doesn't have to be so big (or so expensive). You could make a model aeroplane, do your own painting, and make something from clay, or anything at all.
One of my friends recently bought his own materials and built a magnificent kite! He said it felt great to finish it, but when he stood back and actually saw his achievement (i.e. when it was flying) he felt truly elated. Now that's stress relief!
Form a personal point of view, having suffered with a phobia of public speaking for so long, I always wanted to set up my own website - to be able to communicate in another way, freely, without the troubles I would usually have. When I eventually found a way to set up my site the pride and sense of achievement I felt was enormous. And with that pride and achievement came the stress relief I was after.
So from the examples above I hope you can see how you too can get creative to relive stress. The list of things you could do is endless.
Now it's time for the hard part. . . getting started!
