{"id":1010,"date":"2010-04-13T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T15:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html"},"modified":"2010-04-13T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T15:09:18","slug":"how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html","title":{"rendered":"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stress_in_life.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Did you know that April is National Stress Awareness Month?  It’s good timing for me, because I’m going through a minor stress blip in my life.  So I’ve been thinking about ideas for ways to a) become more aware of the triggers that start stress building and b) take a step in whatever direction stress isn’t heading.<\/p>\n

I started with a list of things that automatically, instantly lower my blood pressure (I probably mean this in an emotional sense–I’ve never measured it):<\/p>\n

1. Being slobbered on by my puppy niece Jane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Seeing my best friend’s phone number on the caller ID.<\/p>\n

3. Peeking at my DVR and discovering lots of saved goodies.<\/p>\n

4. Planting a seed in, or watering, my garden (as an aside, did you know that April is also National Gardening Month?!).<\/p>\n

5. Baking, then smelling, then tasting what I’ve made.<\/p>\n

6. Standing up from my desk and walking over to my office window to see what the tree outside is up to.<\/p>\n

7. Doing 5 minutes of simple stretches.<\/p>\n

8. Seeing fresh, clean sheets on my bed.<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing–coming up with the list made me realize that sometimes (often?), a whole day will go by without my doing any one of those things.  And that is just not acceptable–in National Stress Month or any other.  <\/p>\n

So my pledge is to take a moment every day to think of something–from the list above or not–that I know I can count on to leave me feeling safe, comfortable, in control (ha!), and re-energized.<\/p>\n

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s a sunny day and my garden could use a water.  But before I go….what’s on your “in case of stress, break glass” list?  Have you done anything from it today?<\/p>\n

(image via: http:\/\/gita-blog.blogspot.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Like what you see? <\/strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a>
\nand get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<\/strong>
   <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that April is National Stress Awareness Month?  It’s good timing for me, because I’m going through a minor stress blip in my life.  So I’ve been thinking about ideas for ways to a) become more aware of the triggers that start stress building and b) take a step in whatever direction stress…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[989],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","tag-national-stress-awareness-month"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It. - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It. - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that April is National Stress Awareness Month?  It’s good timing for me, because I’m going through a minor stress blip in my life.  So I’ve been thinking about ideas for ways to a) become more aware of the triggers that start stress building and b) take a step in whatever direction stress…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-13T15:09:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/stress_in_life-thumb-200x200-12830.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It. - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It. - Fresh Living","og_description":"Did you know that April is National Stress Awareness Month?  It’s good timing for me, because I’m going through a minor stress blip in my life.  So I’ve been thinking about ideas for ways to a) become more aware of the triggers that start stress building and b) take a step in whatever direction stress…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2010-04-13T15:09:18+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/stress_in_life-thumb-200x200-12830.jpg"}],"author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html","name":"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It. - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/stress_in_life-thumb-200x200-12830.jpg","datePublished":"2010-04-13T15:09:18+00:00","dateModified":"2010-04-13T15:09:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/stress_in_life-thumb-200x200-12830.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/04\/stress_in_life-thumb-200x200-12830.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/how-to-tell-worry-to-hit-the-bricks.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"You Know That Thing that Lowers Your Stress Level? Do It."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}