The perfect woman,
young and thin,
is everywhere.
Skin clear,
hair shiny and long,
nails manicured,
legs long and shapely,
and butt cheeks and breasts bulging,
she shows off her perfection
with skimpy clothes,
spaghetti straps and bare legs
even in December.
We can wear what we want
perfect or not.
We can wear
our extra pounds,
grey hair,
high heels that make us taller than the men around us,
or sensible shoes,
and comfortable clothing with pockets,
proudly,
even in December.
I've been reading quite a bit about music and memory, about music programs for seniors living in retirement residences and care homes, and music programs designed especially for seniors dealing with dementia and hearing loss.
I'm hoping to join a couple friends providing a music therapy program in local retirement residences and care homes. It's such a great program! Participants wear wireless headphones and listen together to music from their youth, transmitted with a range of frequencies that compensates for hearing loss. It's a gentle and effective way to ignite feelings, reminisce, create bonds through shared experience, and boost self-esteem.
I am certain that music has therapeutic powers. Music's power is wonderful, awe-inspiring, and mysterious. I have felt music effect my well-being and I've seen its effects on others. It's been my experience, and it's backed up by science. I'm learning that music's therapeutic powers are being proven by research.
It's remarkable how our brains process music. The medical and scientific communities are still learning about how it works and how it works differently for different people, but it works wonderfully and mysteriously. Google "music and the brain" and you'll see so many interesting articles from universities and scientific journals. Our brains and our whole bodies are fascinating; we humans are marvelous, miraculous beings.
Music moves us. Music can evoke emotions, right, like the soundtracks in movies making us cry, or feel euphoric, or frightened. Music can make us want to dance or move in certain ways, clap or sway, for example. We can be transported back to a different time and place when we hear songs from our youth, remembering people and places, and even the feel of clothing, and smell of cologne, or campfire smoke. Music has been shown to activate some of the broadest and most diverse networks of the brain. Even if you didn't study music, myriad brain pathways and networks are activated when you listen to music. If you did study music and played an instrument or sang in a choir, you've got lots of lights going on, sparks flying all over your brain, just from listening to music. Moving to music and making music add even more as more motor neurons are stimulated.
You might have come across a story of a person with dementia who could play piano pieces perfectly but could not remember much else. Or, an elderly person who had been unresponsive would suddenly sing along to a beloved old song. Dr. Oliver Sacks, a renowned neurologist, professor, and author, famously stated:
"The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music (that shaped their past), and people can regain a sense of identity."
The research is simply supporting what I feel very strongly, that singing and dancing are important activities that all of us should be encouraged to do. They are the easiest way, the universal, basic, human way to make music. None of us should be discouraged from singing or dancing because our voices or bodies don't measure up to a particular standard. Everyone should have opportunities to sing and dance, especially seniors.
Through my work with the York Region Community Choir and at my church, I've figured out that I feel the happiest and most capable and purposeful when I'm getting people to sing, and singing and dancing with people, young and old. This might be the purpose for me. I hope to provide more opportunites for singing and moving to music to seniors living in retirement residences and care homes in my neighbourhood in this next stage of my life.
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| Music Therapy Program |
Context: your friends are singing and dancing at a party or at a concert or at a bar.
You don't feel that you can join in. You stand still and smile with your mouth closed.
At some time in the past, you were told that you have no rhythm or that you don't have a good voice, can't sing.
Poppycock!
Nonsense!
You are begged to join in.
But no, you laugh and say "Oh, you don't want to hear me sing!"
You say "I have two left feet."
Hogwash!
Horsefeathers!
Of course your friends do want to hear you sing and see you dance; they love you and your voice and your body and they want you to feel good.
Of course you can sing and dance. You walk, you talk; you can dance and sing. Even if you have difficulty walking and talking, you can probably do some dancing and singing. (I've seen and heard severly disabled people enjoy moving their bodies to music and singing, singing in a choir with physical and developmental disabilities-yes, they did and it was beautiful!)
Go ahead and let loose!
Sing loud, or soft, belt or hum. Hum or sing nonsense, because you don't have to know all the words. Just sing the chorus, sing the guitar solo, just sing.
Move your body any way you want, any way you can. You don't have to know choreography or any dance moves that have names. Just sway, or bounce, or wiggle. Just don't hurt anyone, or yourself.
Delight in the sound of your voice because it belongs to you-it's beautiful, unique in its beauty!
Delight in the movement of your body because it belongs to you, and it's magnificent, wonderful, and like you it's beautiful and unique!
Do it for yourself, for health and enjoyment.
Do it for your friends who want to see you happy, who want you to join them in their happiness. You will share your energy with them, increasing their joy, instead of potentially dragging them down with your negativity.
Go ahead and just sing like you walk or talk, without thinking whether you can do it exactly the same again (for a recording or so you can get paid? You're a professional and this is a gig? No! Nonsense.). Sing without having to be accurate, consistent, in control. Dance without having to be accurate, consistent, in control. Let loose.
Go ahead.
Dance.
Sing.
Delight in the music, delight in your friends.
We all need more opportunities to sing and dance for fun. Seek them out, create them, help your friends, your children, your grandparents, and their friends, to experience more singing and dancing together.
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| Me, at my disco dance at church. |
With Goodreads, I can go back and remember, sometimes with no peeking at the synopsis, but mostly with the help of that and the reader reviews.
Also, Goodreads keeps track of what I read each year, so I know that I read 56 books this year.
I don't know what you're interested in for non-fiction recommendations. We can talk about those things another time in another context. So, this is just novels, fiction.
I always recommend Louise Penny and her Armand Gamache series. I love her and almost never forget her name. I love the village of Three Pines she created and all the characters there. I haven't read the latest one, but I would recommend it anyway. I will read it as soon as I can. I didn't read them in order, but I've read them all.
Here's a list of things I especially enjoyed this year. Some of them were just fun, but the first 6 are exceptionally good.
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
The Wanderer by Robyn Carr (author of Virgin River Netflix series)
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
It's not easy to stay positive sometimes.
Yesterday, there were so many upsetting posts on Twitter, Facebook, everywhere! Everywhere I looked, I was reminded of awful things. It got me down. I had to stop looking! But, sometimes it's hard to stop. The pull of negativity is strong.
Roe vs Wade. It's not really Pro Choice or Pro Life. Choice or no choice; life or no life? No. The US Supreme Court is talking about taking away abortion rights, women's rights. People are divided, and angry, and often cruel. I find it hard to believe that we're going backwards here, regressing when we should be progressing (I say we and here because Canadians are not very different from our American neighbours.). I saw several wonderful posts supporting my own position, expressing my own thoughts, and that was good. But, it was still disturbing.
I finally counted my blessings, turned off the world, and headed to choir.
It took a few minutes to shake off my day, and then I was in my happy place, my blissful hours of choir. Choir night is not just an escape from life, but it's also an embracing of life, a reminder of all the good things. We sing about love and harmony, peace, family, friendship, community, sunshine and stars. We celebrate each other's victories, health, babies, grandbabies, and when we need it we get a comforting hug, a shoulder to lean on.
I am very grateful for my childhood experiences with music, with classical music in particular. I hope that young people are getting some good musical experiences these days.
The amount of classical music I was exposed to by rabbits and other creatures in Muppet or animated form is amazing. What a fun way to broaden children's musical experiences!
Video games and movie soundtracks continue to provide serious music for all ages, wonderful symphonic orchestral works that play on the "classical" radio stations. Sesame Street is still at it (currently in season 52), introducing classical music to children and their parents along with lots of fun.
When I was teaching English as a Second Language to adults in North York, I had a workshop that I conducted for other teachers called "Serious Fun". I shared games that I used successfully in class to teach and to practise grammar, idioms and other vocabulary, spelling, all kinds of serious things. The games added much-needed moments of silliness and respite from all of the pressures of being a newcomer to Canada and an adult returning to a classroom. Some of the serious fun included singing.
Serious Fun is still my thing. I love to have fun with my choir, the YRCC, making sure to have at least one song in every performance that makes people laugh, something cute, something silly and fun. I pepper my commentary with dashes of silliness. We often deal with big, serious themes, and sing grand, moving pieces of music, so everyone needs these moments of release.
When we rehearse, we need to have fun every week. We work hard learning music that's often in 4-part harmony and challenging. It's important for us to be able to laugh at ourselves, and to release the stress of the difficult passages in the music we're learning. Even more important for our weekly rehearsals is the need to release the stresses of the day, the stresses of life. My choir is Serious Fun like my grammar games!
Serious music, classical music, orchestral works, don't have to be heavy and challenging. Yesterday, Lauren (my friend and YRCC's lovely president) gifted me with an afternoon at the Symphony with her. The TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) presented a concert called Totally 1980s. It was so much fun! We laughed and sang along (Don't worry: the audience was invited to sing and even dance along.) and we were also fascinated and impressed by all the wonderful musicians in the orchestra and the vocalists who performed a super mix of pop, rock, disco, and soundtracks from our youth. What joy; totally my thing!
I recently posted (on Musical Empathy: renatesmusicalempathy.blogspot.com) about my early memories of serious music, entitled "Sesame Street and Cartoons: Iconic Music Memories". I've spoken about the Muppets quite a bit lately, and because they were such a big influence on me, we're doing a Muppet-like version of Good Morning, Starshine rather than a Hair-like version.
One thing I love about Donna, our new accompanist, is that she happily recounts being told by her students that she sounded like Kermit the Frog. I love Kermit and had a Kermit stuffy when I was little. Donna shares my playfulness, and she is seriously trained and seriously talented. I love that she laughs at my silly jokes. I think Serious Fun is Donna's thing too.
I think everyone should have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, and to play that instrument in a large ensemble. I so much enjoyed my band experiences in school! It was a lot of work but so much fun! Any kind of musical performance is a great part of an education. Music should be learned with lots of fun and less judgement, less competition and more silliness. Serious music with serious fun should be compulsory.
When I watch musicians, I feel great respect for their skills and the investment they've put into making music for us. I'm also grateful for the production, the sound, the staging, the theatre.
I wish every child could also be given experiences at the symphony, the opera, the ballet, and live musical theatre. All of these and big rock concerts, jazz festivals, all kinds of live music mean so much more when you have an understanding of how it works.
In Good Citizens, Thich Nhat Hanh lays out the foundation for an international solidarity movement based on a shared sense of compassion, mindful consumption, and right action. Following these principles, he believes, is the path to world peace. The book is based on our increased global interconnectedness and subsequent need for harmonious communication and a shared ethic to make our increasingly globalized world a more peaceful place. The book will be appreciated by people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds.
Windrows are the piles of snow that the street plow leaves at the end of your driveway. People get so mad at the plows for these! Nonsense!
The plows are just doing what plows do. I'm grateful for the plows and grateful for my strong body and snow moving strategies. I'll share some of my strategies for staying positive and dealing with the snow.
Let the storm rage on. The windrows never bothered me anyway. Sing that like Elsa.
Here's a picture of Dexter. He's our beautiful German Shorthaired Pointer. I'm there behind him, in my blue puffy jacket with my big snow scooper. It's actually called a sleigh shovel. I looked it up. I highly recommend this kind of snow shovel. But, you'll also need a good small ergonomic lifting one. We regularly use 3 different shovels.
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| Don't worry, we're on a little court, no traffic |
When you need to shovel the driveway after a snow storm, make a plan, have your tools handy, and listen to your body. Don't wear your heaviest gear. You'll work yourself warm. If possible, have a buddy to help. If you don't have a helper, consider doing half now and half later, after a rest and some tea.
Push straight ahead as much as possible. Try not to twist your body. Clear a track straight down the middle first. This opens up the way for you, and the dog, to get to the road. More importantly, it divides the task into two smaller ones. I use the scoop for that. You can drag scoopfuls of snow down the road a ways (don't leave it on the road) so that it's not all right by your driveway. Get the snow to the edges and dump/push it up first, and then do lifting later if necessary.
When you have to lift, don't lift too much at once, and don't repeat the same motion too often. Don't lift with the big scooper! Use a smallish shovel with an ergonomic handle. Keep your knees loose, legs strong. Listen to your body, and if it complains, change your movements. Maybe walk to the other end of the driveway, do a little stretching and start from a different angle. You'll want to lift straight as much as possible, but you'll end up leading with one side. Switch sides every few strokes. Don't worry if you're not doing it systematically or beautifully. At the end, you can clean it up so it looks perfect if you want. Pay attention to your body.
IMPORTANT: If you're smiling and loving the snow, you'll have less tension in your neck and shoulders, and generally better use of all of your muscles.
Sing while you shovel.
Send out some grateful love to the snow plow operators who work so hard!
Send out gratitude and love to the waste collectors who have to navigate through all the snow and find, pick up, empty, and put back everyone's recycling boxes and green bins.
When you're done, look at what you've accomplished and feel strong, skillful, and successful. Reward yourself with hot chocolate or tea and maybe a little chocolate, and some dog cuddles inside on the couch.
We've had lots of snow this year but I still don't want a snow blower. Our neighbours who have snow blowers have already used them a few times this winter and I guess they're feeling pretty good.
I've been spending time on the Blue Zones website, bluezones.com, getting inspiration and support for my healthy long life. One of the things they recommend to improve your life and longevity is to use hand tools and equipment more. Clearing the driveway with a snow shovel, they say, gives you a healthy and productive outdoor workout. For me, that's just part of it.
We're having a very cold and snowy winter (it's January 27th, 2022) and I'm happy, one of the few people you know who loves snow and cold. No, I'm not a skier and I don't like snowmobiles. I just think snow is beautiful. It's exciting when it's falling and peaceful afterwards. I walked Dexter this morning and I loved the sound of the snow crunching under my boots, which I could hear because it's so quiet, the world muffled by snow. I have good boots, a good coat, hats, mitts, all the gear I need. When it's minus 20 degrees Celsius, I'm fine. The world looks shiny and clean and the air is crisp.
I'm lucky to live in a suburban neighbourhood where the streets and sidewalks are excellently cleared by the town. (Newmarket, Ontario) We just have to clear our walkways and driveways on our properties. Many of the driveways fit four cars comfortably. When I'm done clearing the snow from my driveway, I feel really good: exhausted and accomplished. It's a good workout. When the snow is heavy and there's a lot of it, it's also a good puzzle, figuring out were to put it all and how to push more than lift and how to make sure I don't hurt myself. The windrow that the snowplow makes at the end of the driveway is especially challenging and can take more time to shovel than the whole driveway sometimes. I like to see how good my driveway and walkway look when I'm done.
When I'm done, I just hang the shovel up. It takes up little space and I have room in my garage for my car. I don't have to store a snowblower or worry about servicing it. My shovel is quiet and clean, very environmentally friendly. As long as I can, I will use a snow shovel.
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| snowy scene outside my window |
Don't give up! We're not quitters!
Keep going! The show must go on!
We've had enough of this.
It's time to take a break and say, "Stop it! I just can't!"
We're tired and we can't do it all. We can't do it all when everything we do is a struggle. Our teams are tired, our support systems are tired, the back-up singers, back-up drivers, back-up shift workers are all sick, and tired, and can't.
I'm tired of looking for the bright side and smiling in the hopes that the smile will turn real.
We're two years in to the pandemic and we're all tired of this. We've reached our limits.
It's okay if you decide to go to bed early (and sleep in late too).
It's okay if you miss the video call, or call in sick.
Leave the task unfinished; do the rest after some rest.
Thank you, Adele, for postponing your Vegas show a couple of days ago! I'm grateful to you for showing your very real and understandable level of stress, and for showing your gratitude to your fans for understanding. Of course they get it. There's grace in letting go.
Thank you, everyone, for your moments of grace in these difficult times. We will try when we can. When we're feeling up to it, we'll smile and we'll do all the things!
But, we can't be expected to keep it up all the time.
Forgive yourself and forgive others when we fail to meet expectations.
Lower your expectations a little for now. It's not forever and it's not always.
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| Adele announcing Vegas show not going on |
Is the opposite of a Pollyanna a curmudgeon? Whatever you call it, that's how I'm feeling.
I'm done playing the glad game. I'm not trying to find something to be glad about these days. I'm sitting deep in my grouchy couch feeling only like crying or cussing.
Since Christmas, I've been experiencing something like the post-show blues I get after a choir performance. It's happened before. There were years when I'd be sick in bed for a week after Christmas. Once all the hoopla was over, a virus would hit and I'd be forced to stop.
This year, the hoopla was cancelled again. It was worse this year because I had hoped to have a real Christmas. I had hopes and plans for Christmas 2021. I planned to host my side, a dinner for 12 for Christmas Day, and my best friend's family, a dinner for 8, on Boxing Day. Christmas Eve was supposed to be church at church and then out to my husband's side. Church was the best ever, a service planned and led by my talented Vix with her guitar, Christmas dinner was wonderful, even if it was just 4 of us. Zoom calls were lovely. I was fine, but now I'm not.
Usually, I'm a sunny person, but these days, I'm feeling overwhelmed with negative emotions. Here is my current "top 10": sadness, anger, disappointment, shame, frustration, impatience, repulsion, fear, worry, and despair.
I've had good moments, even good days. It will flip back again. I'll have bad days and bad moments. This too will pass.
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| This too shall pass. |
from Wikipedia:
Curmudgeon: a person (especially an old man) who is easily annoyed or angered and who often complains.
Synonyms for curmudgeon: bear, bellyacher, complainer, crab, crank, croaker, crosspatch, fusser, griper, grouch, grouser, growler, grumbler, grump, murmurer, mutterer, sourpuss, whiner.
My selective memory is a natural survival mechanism that I thought I had no control over. I became aware that my memory has selected to delete some things when I tried to remember something about a bad time in my life. I've blocked whole chunks of my life from access. I have only the smallest snippet of a memory of my father's funeral, and a tiny fragment of the drive to his burial. It's selective amnesia, actually, isn't it?
What I've come to understand is that I might not have been aware of it in the past, might not have considered it, but I do have some control over what I remember. I can control my selective listening and watching. I can tune things out. And, I think that's what happened with those past things that I can't retrieve. I shut my eyes, walked away and shut out the world. I put the music on loud, sang along, danced, and forgot. I do that now quite frequently. When I have the choice, I select and deselect.
When one pays careful attention to something, mindful of all one's senses in the moment, strong memories are made which can be retrieved easily. A small thing can trigger those memories, a smell, a taste, a melody, the fabric of your dress or maybe the colour. Drink in the good stuff, sniff and taste, feel with attention, and fill yourself with all the sensations of a happy moment. Trigger that.
I have to pay more and better attention to all the good stuff. I feel some regret for not paying enough attention to wonderful things in the past. I have forgotten too much. I'm lucky that I do avoid spending time on negative things, and I have ways of redirecting myself towards positivity. During this pandemic, however, I've spent much more time than ever before dwelling in feelings of sadness, anger, disappointment, shame, frustration, impatience, repulsion, regret, fear, worry, and despair.
Twice though, in difficult circumstances this past year, I was very much comforted, and able to comfort others, with the knowledge that in time we would forget. The emotional and physical pain and the details of the current predicament would not only end in the near future but would also be difficult, maybe even impossible, to remember in the more distant future. We are counting our blessings.
On a light note (pun intended), I think that people who think that the best music was made in their formative years forget all the music that was considered simple, shocking, or just ugly back then. They also choose not to hear all the good new music that is being made now. Their parents did the same thing. Every generation has parents saying, "What is this horrible stuff you're listening to?" They don't really pay attention to current music. The things that are shocking to their ears stick out and offend. There are always comfortable "oldies" stations for them, old hits or "classic" rock. I find it funny when I'm listening to an oldies station and they play what was considered an edgy song when I was younger. Looking back, it is so tame! I'm glad that I understand this and I am open to enjoying and appreciating (most of) the music my children love.
I wear my heart on my sleeve. I don't have a poker face, can't play those games.
My feelings are often stronger than my self-control. I'm lucky I can hold my tongue, mostly, but I blush and I cry and I laugh out loud. I occasionally blurt out a four-letter-word, but I also have been heard yelling: "Four-Letter-Word!" It's rarely a problem.
I wish some people would be nicer, or would at least hold their tongues, and refrain from plastering negativity on stickers on their cars, on social media, or on their shirts.
There are kind and supportive messages to be found. I recently did a little "window shopping" at Torrid (a plus size clothing store that I like), you know, where you just click around and add things to the shopping cart that you wish you could buy, but can't, or wouldn't? There were lots of nice t-shirts and sweatshirts with really fun stuff on them. I would wear this one, that says EVERY BODY IS BEAUTIFUL.
There was another one that I really wanted. It said PSST! YOU'RE DOING GREAT!
It's coming on Christmas, so one of the seasonal tops said ALL MAMA NEEDS IS A SILENT NIGHT.
I'm happy to see that we can share our love and support for each other with our clothing, wearing our hearts on our sleeves, or chests, I guess.
These shirts reminded me of those kiosks in the malls that sell t-shirts with sports or band themes and pictures of skeletons and poop. I try to avoid them. When I was young, they had nicer kiosks where they would put your name on the back while you walked around window shopping (the kind where you're actually going into the store, but not putting anything in a cart. "No, thanks. I'm just looking."). I think they used the Cooper Black font. I remember lots of yellow smiley faces and Have a Nice Day. But, that might be my weird selective memory (another subject for another time).
In any negative situation, if you look hard enough, you can find something to be glad about. Pollyanna was taught this coping strategy by her father before he died. They called it the Glad Game.
This Psychology Today article* from 2019 looks at research on gratitude's effects on wellbeing. Keeping a gratitude journal, or writing a daily list of things that you're thankful for, or performing some kind of regular gratitude exercise, has been shown to improve mental and physical health. The author suggests that Pollyanna is misunderstood, that this kind of positivity is very healthy and should not be seen as unrealistic or negative. Yes! I'm happy I found someone who so clearly agrees with me.
Here's a quote from that article:
See if you can find something to be glad about and grateful for in every situation, no matter how bad things seem, and if someone dares to call you a Pollyanna, smile and say thank you.
I do see how going too far with this can become toxic positivity. If you don't give space for other people to feel their negativity, and insist that they find a good side to their terrible circumstances, then you might be called names, and, Pollyanna wouldn't be the worst of them. We always want to be gentle with people who are suffering.
Make this practice about you, about your own way of processing things that happen, to you or to others.
When stress is bad, it's bad. It doesn't just feel bad in the moment, but can also have lasting and far-reaching effects.
"Cumulative lifetime stress accelerates epigenetic aging, a predictor of the rate of biological aging," says Perla Kaliman, Ph.D., a professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Spain.
That quote comes from the Shape article that I saved and decided to write about. We need to protect ourselves from stress and deal with our tension to stay healthy. They recommend meditation as the way to protect ourselves from the damaging effects of stress. If you take care of your diet and exercise and add meditation, you should be good.
This is the fifth and final post of my five-part series on slowing down ageing according to that Shape article that I liked. I will not stop thinking about and talking about staying healthy as we age though. There is so much information out there and so much advice from everyone about what we should or shouldn't do as we get older!
My posts parts 1 and 2 were about diet: here’s a link to the Omega-3 post and a link to the frequent small meals post. Parts 3 and 4 were about movement: here's a link to the one about being active every day and a link to the one about avoiding sitting too much.
#5 Deal with your tension
A brief Google search identified a number of signs of stress which to me sounded an awful lot like symptoms of menopause and ageing. But then, Google also said that stress is really just about change:
Stress is a normal human reaction that happens to everyone. In fact, the human body is designed to experience stress and react to it. When you experience changes or challenges (stressors), your body produces physical and mental responses. That's stress. Stress responses help your body adjust to new situations.
So, we're okay getting stressed if it's a passing thing, like the stress you feel before you go into a job interview. We can face all kinds of natural and normal stressors every day. But, if it's going on too long, like during a pandemic or the years of perimenopause and then menopause, and you don't do anything to take care of it, then you can experience some serious consequences:
If you're feeling some of those serious consequences, talk to your doctor. Get some good, reliable advice. It's quite possible that medication will help you. Are you more likely to take meds for pain and muscle tension than for anxiety? Mental Health is a big issue, especially now during the pandemic, and we need to accept help. We need to accept that laughter is good, but medicine is sometimes the best medicine.
I consulted the CMHA and the NIMH, the Canadian and American government health departments' websites, and found lots of useful information on Mental Health and stress. These links will take you directly to pages I liked. I recommend spending some time on the CMHA and NIMH websites to find things that speak to you, tips that make sense to you (and, really, talk to a health professional if you're experiencing serious stress symptoms).
Diet, Exercise, Sleep are all the first factors mentioned everywhere. Seems like these are the things to focus on to manage your stress. If you get your daily routines of sleep and activity and eating in order, then your mind and body will be able to tackle things that come along. But, sometimes that's not enough, and there are lots of ways-including meditation-to deal with your tension. Here are a few:
