Down with stress

Quite some time ago, while discussing philosophy and the meaning of life I wrote that this search would not involve mathematics. There is something else that I would like to exclude from this compendium of all things meaningful and that is stress.

Yesterday, I met with a woman who exuded stress the way some people exude confidence. It coloured her every word and movement to the degree that I began to sniff the air for the stench of it.

Stress is one of the most poisonous by-products of modern existence. With all our labour saving devices and life-extending medical treatments, rarely have so many suffered from such a degree of tension since hunting and gathering times.

We obsess about the consumption of carcinogenic foods and have banished smokers from sight in order to diminish our risk of contracting cancer but we accept without question a degree of stress that causes high blood pressure, cancer, skin disorders, ruined relationships and countless disturbed nights of sleep, or lack thereof.

Here are the things that I do to reduce stress:

- jogging is my number one stress busting activity, a good run along the beach near my house seems to melt away tension and make the world seem like a much more pleasant place than it was when I first put trainer to ground.

- sitting in the sun is another wonderful way to relieve stress. It is amazing how the warm rays of the sun cause my shoulders to drop, my face to relax and my mood to lift considerably.

- cooking tomato sauce has always helped me to blend away the day. Maybe this is a cure that is particular to me, but I have always found it enormously therapeutic to stand over a hot pot of sauce, stirring and watching, with little worry that I will ruin the dinner if I drift off into thought for several minutes while I cook.

- there's nothing quite like the talking cure and women are great at this. We talk ourselves into circles and then out of them again.

- sleeping for 10 hours on the trot has an unbelievable (literally, I did not believe that sleep alone would have the effect that it did - try it, it's wonderful) de-stressing effect. I never feel quite so calm, collected and in control as I do when I sleep for 10 hours. Of course, having the time to sleep for half the day is quite a luxury and one of the reasons why, although being unemployed can be enormously stressful, I felt energised throughout much of the time that I was free of the 9-5.

And now that my lunch break is drawing to a close, I must dash outside to take a few gasps of fresh air before I plough on, full speed ahead towards 5.30 and the light at the end of the stress tunnel.