CHEA!!!

All of the suggestions for coping with stress and reducing it are very good. I recommend music, art, dance, etc., as means of self-expression. Play an instrument, draw a picture, dance with a music video. Take a course or private study, if possible. It’s cheaper than therapy and feels surprisingly like therapy, sometimes.

To sleep better I won’t work out for at least an hour before bedtime, and I sleep with the window open a crack. I fall right asleep and stay asleep until the alarm blasts.

I definitely stress with the best of them. When I find myself in this mode I take a deep breath and write a list. I know not everyone is a list writer, but actually seeing it all written out shows me that it isn’t all that bad!

I am choosing to ignore that bit about switching from coffee to water…even though I know you are right

1)I have pets. Not exactly a solution for everybody, but the major advantage of pets is that they ALWAYS live in the now; you have to switch gears to deal with them. The extra advantage of the dogs is that I can go play with them for an hour and quite rightly feel that I have done something good and necessary for them- and I had to disengage my anxieties about nebulous abstracts to do it.

2)I developed a mental protocol to deal with persistent worries. I go through a step-by-step analysis of: 1)What is wrong, 2)Why that’s something to worry about, 3)What can I do about it? By the time I finish with three, the worry feels “dealt with” enough that I can much more easily shove it aside and go do something relaxing instead- even if the answer is “nothing right now”.

Mike OD, couldn’t agree more about the sugar.

Jeff, you know, I appreciate your saying something about the headline. We debated it a bit as it has entered the slang cultural lexicon but the original meaning – and as you say, the very real nature of the word – isn’t so pleasant. Thanks for speaking up. What do you all think? I’m happy to change it to “hacks” or something else. You know there is actually a blog called “Pimp Your Work” that is all about work and computer hacks. Hmmm….thoughts?

I would, however, encourage y’all to refrain from using language about ‘pimping’ anything — pimping human beings is a very real thing, and to see this phrasing used on a site meant to promote health of all kinds is jarring.

The phrase ‘hacking your brain’ could have been used, and would have been more apropos, given that one would be improving one’s brain, rather than selling one’s brain for sexual favors.