Destressing a stressful day

I don’t know about you, but I have a temper like a wet firecracker. I can go weeks, months even in a state of calm. Then the heat builds up and I explode.

So here’s the scenario as I’m typing this - Bad timing, I ziltched out my mail software (don’t ask), as well as a few other software packages that were open when my computer crashed. The stress is mounting. I’m leaving for the UK. I’m rushing to get immediate work done. I need this to work now. I need it all to work now.

Experience tells me that fussing never fixed anything. Most of the fussing I’ve done just breaks more of what’s not broken. Breaking things can be fun, but not calming. I need calm. I need it right now. I don’t have time for the spiral.

So I went in a different direction. I walked around. Rubbed my cats belly. Listened to dance music on Pandora. Too loud. Too fast. Switched to Russell’s station at Last.Fm. Not too shabby. But not relaxing. Maybe classical music? Classical is also supposed to open up creative brain power (not sure where I heard that one). So leaving Russell, I came away with a Baroque Classical station. Nice. I can deal with that.

Last.Fm: What is Scrobbling? Scrobbling a song means that when you listen to it, the name of the song is sent to Last.fm and added to your music profile.

Once you’ve signed up and downloaded Last.fm, you can scrobble songs you listen to on your computer or iPod automatically. Start scrobbling yourself, and see what artists you really listen to the most. Songs you listen to will also appear on your Last.fm profile page for others to see.

Moving on, I took a shower. Made another pot of tea. Then started working on something that’s not broken. This post. I have a file of Stressbusters in the wings so I choose one that fits this situation, Sound Sleeping. I’m now listening to soothing sounds of my own making. Again, nice.

From Sound Sleeping: The free relaxing music and nature sounds on this website have been carefully chosen for their ability to aid sleep, reduce stress, and provide a relaxing atmosphere for activities such as yoga, tai-chi, and meditation.

I ran through some of the options on the sound generator at Sound Sleeping and it works quite well. I was able to come up with a combo that suits me anyway.

Rhythmic drumming is supposed to create a hypnotic effect. I found it annoying. Too many abrupt noises to relax.

The vibraphone became boring after awhile. I felt I needed more variety if it’s going to be that sort of instrument. I went back to it later though, and it’s fine (I must be calming down).

Water always works for me. Rain, creeks, ocean, it all soothes.

I never did find the “booming sound of thunder” but the crackling of the bonfire is distracting so I’m not sure how they feel it should be on there. Maybe they’ve confused it with the relaxation that comes from looking into a fire?

The birds work well, but the windchimes, no. And the gulls? Not for me. Listening to rats with wings is not my idea of a calm experience. But then, I’m one of those people who disparage monkeys.

In the end I went for a mixture of water (keeping the ocean toned down) with birds and the vibraphone. My cats seem to like it too (I’ll bet they’re wondering where that chirpy bird is). The combo is calming so I’ll get back to my computer to see if I can figure out how to not break what isn’t broken. Again.

So, what do you do to calm down when stressed?

Until the next
Sunday Stressbuster,
cat