Simple exercises anyone can do to feel better

When I think of relieving stress, yoga is an option that comes to mind. And after this weekend, it looks like I’m going to need the exercises at Desktop Yoga due to the brief tension caused by an April Fools joke played on expats in Thailand.

New Luxury tax on internet usage in Thailand. All internet accounts to be taxed with 970 Baht/month. Hardware dongle required for internet use.

I was spitting mad until I woke up after reading the part that went “Dr. Rinrada Maimeepompem, head of IPstar Internet Speeds Division, has announced plans to move the IPstar satellite closer to earth from next month, which should improve speeds greatly due to less distance for the signal to travel.”

Sharing the love, I sent the information (sans url) to my Canadian friend, with a note that Macs are not affected. And that she can skip the dongle issue by switching from PC (she’s in the process of getting a laptop/powerbook but isn’t sure which one to buy).

In reply, she said she’s unsure what to do at the moment. And besides, her driver is off for the weekend.

On Monday morning she’ll either call me to:
1) ask which Mac I recommend
2) tell me about the great Mac she bought, then ask if I would show her how to use it
3) say her driver has been unable to locate dongles at their local 7-11, but
4) her husband is confident he can find one, so no worries

I wonder if she’ll also enjoy the exercises at Desktop Yoga.

Until the next
Sunday Stressbuster,
cat

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

Careerbuilder.com brings you Age-o-matic

From Age-o-matic: Find out what your soul sucking job is doing to you.
Just upload a photo and answer a few highly scientific questions.

Any soul sucking my jobs have done was years ago, so after is pretty much now.

Almost as fun as the Age-O-Matic is looking through the job ads. Some are decent (Google advertises for jobs at Careerbuilder.com). Others, like the RECEPTIONIST GRAPHIC DESIGNER with 2 years minimum office experience who must pass a grammar / spelling test. Not so much.

Until the next
Sunday Stressbuster,
cat