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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Healthy Ways to Blow Off Steam

After a really crappy day, I have the need to blow off some steam... Yesterday was just such a day... I was caustic and vile and irritated and a whole lot of other adjectives... My husband helped me through my afflictions by providing me with the necessary liquor and awesomely-destructive movies to help get me throught the funk... I enjoyed watching the justice and violence of Boondock Saints (and really want to watch the second one now) while drinking a couple of margaritas and a long-island iced-tea. Being the responsible person that I am, my imbibing happened at home. This combo definitely did the trick...

I'm not saying what I did last night to deal with my frustration was healthy... in fact, far from it. Due to my RA, everytime I have more that 1 serving of alcohol, my joints become extremely stiff and sore the next day (I don't get hangovers unless I really take it over the top... I'm talking about being sick-drunk... never again...). I drink massive amounts of water the next day, so that helps. I try not to do this more than once or twice a year... You know, everything in moderation...

Which brings me to my question... What do you do to relieve stress? Do you go running? Do you kick a punching bag? Do you scream? Do you cry? What are considered healthy ways to work through issues? I'm not being rhetorical here, I'm really asking... I have a feeling that I will have many more of those kinds of days in the future and I would like to mix it up a bit... I can't always run to the bottle for my outlet and I don't want to. So comment and tell me what you do to blow off steam. I look forward to reading the responses I get :)

2 comments:

Silvie - SE Impressions said...

Hey Jen! As you say, alcohol is definitely NOT the right solution. If I really need to relieve stress I go for a run (most of the time a short one, because I start way to aggressive and never can keep up with that pace for the loop I normally do). Now being pregnant and not being able to run I yell (E will probably say that I also do that when not being pregnant). It reliefs me to yell and it will mostly end up in a big sob...However, I do prefer the running one. Even though I get exhausted of both running and yelling/crying, the running type of exhaustion gives me a better feeling then the thick face of crying :-)..... Have to admit that I have never ever grabbed for liquor.... Probably because I am not a big drinker.

Jen said...

@ Silvie... You are right. I know that if I become dependant on alcohol to relieve stress, that will be a very bad thing. As it is, I drink very little. Maybe a beer or wine if we go out to dinner and occassionally a drink at home, maybe 5-8 times per year... I try to find other outlets, but last night just called for a margarita... I'll have to see if I can do some running.