Relieving Stress

While I was sick with schizo-effective disorder I experienced a lot of mental stress. Fear, anxiety, and depression plagued my life and I struggled everyday just to get through the day peacefully without hallucinations, shakes, crying spells, or vomiting. I started finding ways to relieve myself of this stress through yoga, art, and music. Here are a few stress relievers I found that helped me to get through my rough period.

Writing: I would write out my fears in a journal, my angers, and my dreams. I addressed the letters to God and I would yell at Him for what he had done to me. I went through situations in my past that haunted me, my guilt and my shame. I often wrote love poems addressed to God, song lyrics, and short stories. I wrote everything down so it would not bottle up inside me and explode. I found writing to be a very healing process; I released everything I needed to out on paper and I even found beauty and creativity in it. I often wrote a gratitude list. I was angry that I was cleaning houses and I lost my college degree due to my illness, but I was grateful I was able to work, I had a loving supportive family, and I was able to write. I wrote down who I wanted to be and decided I wanted to be kind loving person who listens and helps. I made a list to smile at a stranger on the street, to listen to people more closely, and to talk with my elderly aunt who I was taking care of. It helps to write things down so that you can see them and read them over months later to see where you have been and where you are going. Writing is very healing and free verse I believe works the best. Just let yourself write with grammar mistakes and misspells and bad language. Don’t judge what you write ever, you do not have to show a journal to anyone. The Buddhists when they meditate say to never place an expectation on your mediation. I used writing as a sort of mediation on what I was thinking and found it really helps. After a while, you may find something beautiful is happening inside you that you never noticed before.

Art: When I paint I escape; I enter a different world that is all my own. I often don’t even realize what it is I am painting but always find that it is a beautiful creation. I relate my painting with a spiritual experience, God paints through my fingers and I just meditate on the movements, the color, the creative process, the experience. The process is worth more then the product and I suggest picking up a paint brush and just painting as if your fingers were dancing to a silent music or taking your camera to local beach and taking pictures. Photography is therapy too. The whole creative process is healing. I went to the Hudson River on the West Side of New York City and took pictures of the people passing through the sunset. I sat there for two hours just staring at the sun, the water and taking pictures. My focus on pictures took me away from my life for a moment and quieted and healed me. I felt as if I had meditated for an hour as I walked down 14th Street away from the river, that’s how much peace was inside me. Try crafts or anything you like, my cousin likes to make seashell necklaces. She walks the beach looking for nice shells, punches a hole in the top, paints them and it’s a beautiful necklace. Creativity makes you feel productive and alive, it puts beauty back into your life and gives you meaning. Anything in the arts, sculpture, painting, or sketching will take you away from the world for a moment and give a nice, sober euphoria you cannot experience anyway else. Try making something for a loved and focus on their joy. Happiness is a great stress reliever and a gift from the heart will uplift you and them.

Walking: I would not know where I was going but I would take the E subway from Queens to 34th Street and walk Broadway downtown. New York City is a very stressful place. There are people everywhere in a rush, cab drivers cutting people off in the street, and crowds on the subway. I found that just walking and window shopping or going into a local independent bookstore really helped. I tried to focus on the couples holding hands on the street as I passed or the pregnant mothers with their children or friends laughing as they walked. Walking and exercise relieve a lot of stress. Yoga and stretching can also help if you don’t strain the positions and focus on your breath as you stretch. I would walk the city, walk to the train station, and take bike rides to the beach when I was at my parent’s house in Long Island. Any kind of physical activity will help balance the chemicals in your body and relieve you of your body’s natural stress reactions.                  

Bubble Bath: I went to Bath and Body Works and got stress relieving oils for a bubble bath. I put on soft classical music and took a bubble bath. I massaged my body with oils and then sat in the bath for a half hour. It relaxes you so much you will think your skin is sleeping.

Chamomile Tea: I am a bad coffee drinker, I drink a lot of coffee, but I would drink tea instead and the warmth of chamomile tea makes you feel good, cozy, and relaxed. It is also good for you.     

Have a Conversation: I talked to people, my parents, friends and family about what was bothering me, what was causing the stress and their love and support healed me deeply. I saw a therapist once a week and we discussed the meaning of situations and how different situations evolved. We talked out the problem and came up with solutions. Having a conversation with a stranger about a book or something in the news will take you away from your worries for a moment and get you involved. Talking relieves you of any extra tension you may feel from work, family, or illness.    

Music: Buy fresh vegetables and grains and make a nice healthy meal for yourself. Put on music that suits your mood, soft if you need to be more relaxed or something with an up beat if you are down and trying to be uplifted. Try to pick something with a good message, a love song or a song about friendship. Sing along as your cooking. Music heals and uplifts the soul and lets you escape whatever is stressing you out. I would sometimes put on a dance song and just dance in my living room to feel free and open. I would just let myself go and be taken by the sounds. Nobody is watching so just let yourself be free and laugh.

Comedy: Watch a funny movie or read a funny book. If you cannot focus because your stressed read a book on tape, I am beginning to love them. Talk to a friend who you laugh with or go look up funny videos. Laughter, as they say, is the best medicine.

Fall In Love: Love heals everything. Falling in love, meeting new people, and enjoying family relieve a lot of stress. Love gives you a euphoric feeling that will keep you happy, healthy, and alive.

Listen To, Observe, And Feel Nature: I was at my parents’ house in Long Island last summer and a thousand bird were singing; it created a warm beautiful feeling to sit outside in their backyard and listen to the birds sing while they flew from tree to tree. I always loved the birds in New York City. I saved old bread for them and observed them flying and eating and chirping to each other. If I was in the city I would go to Central Park and stroll by the lake or I would travel to the Hudson and feel peace from the sounds and movements of the water, the trees, and the beautiful surprises in the sky. Watch the stars emerge and think about change and how even rough times in your life will pass. Be quiet with yourself, allow yourself to not think. Experience the colors and smells of the grass and flowers, the bugs and butterflies that fly pass, and feel the wind soft on your face. Listening to wind can calm me and bring me peace. Watching a sunset or sunrise creates a beautiful feeling of awe, grace and gratitude. Feel small inside nature, take notice of details and envision how beautiful it really is. If you meditate on how it is all put together and works you would be amazed at the little things in life. Observe people in interaction with each other who are in love, a bird flying into the air, or a sun rising just beyond a beach and see how beautiful nature is and beautiful you are too as a piece of it.