When I was a teen, I\u2019d sometimes join my youth pastor Gary on whirlwind days where he\u2019d have back-to-back appointments and an event to execute later the same night. In the moments of heavy stress, he\u2019d drive to a public park, pull a basketball out of the trunk of his car and shoot hoops for 20-30 minutes. It seemed a little odd to me at the time, because the appointments and tasks were piling up, but later I saw how smart it was to flush the stress out for a moment and regain some peace and calm.<\/p>\n
Now, sometimes faced with the same sorts of days Gary faced, I find myself looking for an oasis of rest in the middle of the storm. Here are some of the ways I\u2019ve tackled it:<\/p>\n
Friends<\/span> \u2013 I\u2019ve found most often I turn to friends for stress-relievers, calling them up for a random conversation, putting the mountain of tasks in perspective by realizing how much more there is to life. They don\u2019t necessarily offer a solution to the problem, but just being there and listening works wonders.<\/p>\n Prayer<\/span> \u2013 When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.<\/p>\n Running<\/span> \u2013 When I used to run every day, thirty minutes later, I\u2019d be loose as a goose. I was so laid back some people thought something was wrong with me. But I was just basking in the afterglow of the workout. Sometimes I\u2019d run at night. I lived near a track and I\u2019d look out on the darkness of the track even around midnight and question the run. I realized that if I could make it one lap, I\u2019d be too tired\/relaxed to care if Jason Voorhees came running out of the woods with a machete.<\/p>\n Music<\/span> \u2013 The most memorable time of this was my second night alone in the hospital after breaking my neck. During the first night, I woke up and panicked, with all those morbid thoughts running through my head. I called my aunt just to hear a familiar voice. The second night, I asked her to bring me my music. When I woke up, I put the headphones on and worship music helped erase those worries.<\/p>\n What do you do? How do you handle stress?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a teen, I\u2019d sometimes join my youth pastor Gary on whirlwind days where he\u2019d have back-to-back appointments and an event to execute later the same night. In the moments of heavy stress, he\u2019d drive to a public park, pull a basketball out of the trunk of his car and shoot hoops for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n