pre98- how desparate you are to try and relieve stress? what i mean is are you willing to try some things that may not be considered traditionally manly or are do you just want to solve the problem and you don't much care about traditional gender roles? believe it or not the answer makes a difference in what suggestions i make.
generally, find something simple and free to take your mind off things. i enjoy bike riding so if i am hitting the far end of managable i will go for a ride. the pier is 17 miles one way through an unsafe (to one's person, not due to terrain) trail running along the riverbed from my apartment and i have made that trip more than once at night with no light. for me the idea is i am forced to consider only one thing...my immediate safety (oxymoronic approach, i know). out of sheer necessity everything else is put aside. this allows me to organize my thoughts one at a time and decide what i am going to do about whatever. if at the pier i think i require more time than 34 miles will allow then i will simply keep going. the furthest i know i have gone is 45-50 miles round trip. btw, no phone, pager, pda, blackberry, or any other device that would keep me from being "off the grid" is allowed on these rides. do you enjoy running? swimming? the big things are important but it is the little things that combined will make or break a stressful situation.
note-my method favors conquering stress rather then substituting it with party time. that is not to say that party time is bad or ineffectual but rather just a different approach. it also absolutely positively forbids the use of any drugs in an effort to calm oneself rather than use discipline to accomplish the same task.
Last edited by JB1; 03/21/06 02:01 AM.
