You know it’s Monday when . . . I won’t go into details but as to Mondays, this has to be one of the top 5 all time worst Mondays in my personal history. It’s one of those ‘Murphy was an optimist’ days. The worst part is, I am out of all types of aspirin/Tylenol/ibuprofen/ whatever headache meds you could think of and I have one of those head in a vice types of headaches. UGH!
Anyway, the whole point of my post is to get out of the funk not rehash the funk. So here goes!
Soak time!
Top 10 Ways to Destress
- Deep Breaths – whether you practice yoga, or sitting upright and taking deep cleansing breaths. Try it. Go ahead, right there at your desk. Back straight, chin up – take a deep deep breath filling your lungs completely, then slowly with controlled breathing exhale. As you do, mentally imagine the stress falling off of you into the floor where someone else can sweep it up. Repeat this about 5 times. You can do this a few times a day. Most of us fall into the routine of shallow breathing. Take a moment to care for your mental health as well as your physical – more oxygen gives you a better complexion as well! BONUS!
- Sing – you don’t have to do karaoke or have a microphone, just sing! In your car, in your shower, in your living room, wherever! This isn’t for others entertainment, this is for your peace of mind. Music soothes the frazzled nerves the same as it does the savage beast.
- Take a Hike – get your blood pumping. Sometimes it helps to simply get up and move around. A walk down the hallway to the bathroom in another part of the building has a twofold benefit. The extra steps help to get your blood pumping and you get to see different scenery. Amazing what a difference a little bit of newness can do for your outlook! When I worked at the county courthouse, I would occasionally take the stairs to the third floor bathroom because they had a very nicely decorated and clean bathroom while the one on our floor, basement level, tended to be kind of grungy. The bright white porcelain tiles on the third floor had the effect of lifting my spirits. I guess that it didn’t hurt that it was away from the traffic court and domestic violence court either. We would often go for a brisk walk at lunchtime to get some fresh air; weather permitting.
- Keep a Journal – It is amazing looking back at some of my journal entries. There are times when I would be complaining about something trivial things and realize after reading through them how self-absorbed I had been. There are times when my journal entries were working through difficult situations and I had to remind myself of the blessings that I did have. There are times that I journaled about fun things, exciting moments, a kind deed that someone else did for me that lifted me out of the current bit of self-pity. (Make sure you read my other posts about my current journaling obsession – the bullet journaling entries. )
- Make a List – You know you are already making the mental list and stressing over how you are going to get it all done. So take the step and write down your todo list. With focused efforts you can tackle each item and then mark it off of the list – YAY! This is another feature that my bulletjournal helps me with, because those tasks that I don’t get to today are first on my list for the next day. I simply make a little arrow, then move then to the next day. I am a list maker because it helps to clarify my otherwise chaotic brain.
- Work on a brain teaser – There is value in that crossword puzzle, word search, or my personal favorite Sudoku. It keeps your brain sharp, while allowing you a few minutes of not thinking about the current problem, which your brain can work on in your subconscious and the brief distraction can often help destress and clear your brain clutter at the same time.
- Time Out – A little down time nappy nap is a good thing. Not while you are driving, not while you are in the department meeting, but when the mid afternoon slump hits you, a brief snooze is a good thing. My husband is not a good napper. Brief naps don’t really help him and he wakes more cranky and drained than refreshed. For me though, a twenty-minute nap can revive my previous walking dead state. This is one benefit to working at home, whether I choose to take my dog for a walk, or get a power nap (Yeah, I know that is an old term and shows my age) there is no one there to tell me I can’t.
- Eat healthy – After the high fat, high sodium, girdle busting heavy super nachos deluxe that I prepared for the big Superbowl party, the soup and salad are a welcomed refreshing meal. There is a time for the comfort foods then there is a time for the lighter fare.
- Visualize – Take some time to SEE your future, SEE how that project will look finished, SEE yourself reaching that goal, SEE yourself succeeding. BE the ball! A couple of suggestions that I would have for you here are to 1)make a dream board – to keep in front of you for those days when you are mentally lagging. 2) Take 5 minutes at the beginning of the day to visualize yourself accomplishing your tasks today and working towards your goal. This will change your outlook from the daily grind to an outlook of satisfaction. Attitude really does make a huge difference!
- Vacation – Time away to recharge, refresh, renew! Disclaimer here – a working vacation is not relaxing. Do NOT take your work with you and think that you are going to be able to unwind because you won’t. YOu’ll be stressing over how to get this done, and how you are going to that, and now you will be worrying about what if their wi-fi connection doesn’t work. Just don’t! Value yourself enough to give yourself a break!
Now for a bit of challenge catch up. For the next few days, I will add the bit from #authorlifemonth at the end of my posts.
My February Challenge for 2016 is #authorlifemonth. I’ve already shared 1 thru 4 on February Challenge .
Day 5: Comp covers – I don’t have any comp covers as Red Wine & Roses is a stand alone romance novel.
Day 6: fan art/edit: To my knowledge, I don’t have any fan art anywhere, unless of course someone wants to share their art with me. Edit: A few people have pointed out some typos in the book for me, so before I order more print copies, I’ll make revisions to the formatted copy.
Day 7: Writing Music – umm wow! I could do and have done entire posts on this one. My playlists are unique for each book that I write. Heavy metal seemed to dominate for writing about dragons. I queued a lot of romantic songs for Red Wine & Roses, a mixture of pop, rock, classic rock, some heavy metal are on the playlist for Valkyrie’s. Perhaps I will share about that in the upcoming month for a post.
Day 8: Awesome moment. Hmmm, not sure exactly what is intended here but let’s proceed. An awesome moment in writing RWAR, was the moment of tragedy. I could see it playing out in my head like a movie. I kept replaying it, pausing it, playing in slow motion over and over again so that I could get my descriptions down to my satisfaction. I am pleased to say that this section did not require much revision. To me, that is a bit of good writing!
For the next few days I will be sharing these items at the bottom of my posts, maybe splitting the weekend facts . . . not sure.
Anyway, here’s to a healthier you all around in 2016! You are valuable – start treating yourself like it!
Write on my friends, write on!
Ellie
quotidiandose 
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