I have been tagged, and I must meme.

[squeequeg]

Things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level?

- Walking somewhere wild (i.e. not a garden, not streets, not parks unless they're the kind with wild spots), preferably for at least half an hour. This also helps if I'm trying to work out a knotty plot problem. (Naughty plot problems are another matter entirely.)
- I'm tempted to say "going for a jog," because while I feel like total crap during it, I feel better afterward. But the act itself doesn't make me any calmer than usual.
- Reading -- however, if I want to really relax, then I have to be careful in my choice of book. Good narratives that temporarily block out everything else do it. Stories where I'm getting angry either at characters or on behalf of the characters aren't as relaxing, though they're often as good. I've finished some books and been left with a "well, that was good, but now I'm irritable/depressed/poking holes in the plot" feeling, and that's not as relaxing.
- I'd say needlepoint, but I haven't done much of that lately, and when I do, it's something for my hands to do while my brain does something else. Which explains the number of dropped stitches.
- Baking something (e.g., muffins). However, if I'm baking for an occasion, this tends to increase stress rather than decrease it. Cooking for myself is much more fun.
- Dressing up. Really. If I'm feeling ugly and lumpy, or if I've just been rained on all day, nothing feels better than velvet pants and a slinky top.
- Creating something new.
- If the stress or anxiety is caused by one specific thing (rejected story, job search screwed again), then starting on something new related to that thing helps. Like sending a story right back out after getting it back. Or sending out a metric fuckton of resumes after being turned down for a job. (Has to be metric, though. English fucktons are no good.)
- I have no animal companion, but when I lived with the two Vomiting Furballs, it was awfully relaxing to just sit with one of them in my lap and not think of anything for a while. Of course, I'd eventually have to worry about where they'd thrown up this time.

Tagging with this meme: cincodemaygirl, cute_fuzzy_evil, sal_sal, ltlbird, ethicsgradient.

Comments

[laobscuridad.livejournal.com]

nothing feels better than velvet pants and a slinky top

I know the kind of top you mean, and yet I have a mental image of a shirt made out of Slinkys...like the woman with the credit card dress at the Oscars a few years back. Hmmm...I wonder if the shirt would slinky down stairs?

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I have no animal companion, but when I lived with the two Vomiting Furballs, it was awfully relaxing to just sit with one of them in my lap and not think of anything for a while. Of course, I'd eventually have to worry about where they'd thrown up this time.

Ah, a fun game. There's nothing like waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a cat hurking somewhere else and wondering if you should get up to find it now, or be surprised by it when you inevitably forget and step in it a few hours later.