Last week on Stress Relief Tuesday, I gave you a symphony of stress relief, in four pictures. In my own words:
So rather than blather on, I’m going to give you a symphony of stress relief; a four movement symphony in 4 pictures.
Followed by four pictures of me out enjoying; nature, a cigar, a hobby and music. You may be asking, “What does that have to do with ‘focus?’”
Not a damned thing.
Stress relief isn’t science, it’s art and what works for one man doesn’t necessarily work for another. By way of example, my kung fu teacher cannot stand fishing, whereas I can fish the whole day long, and have. Seriously, there have been days when I lost track of time and almost broke an ankle stumbling out of the river, and up the bank, in the dark.
Just as not every stress relief technique works for every man, not every technique works every time. What worked yesterday might not work today, so you need more tools in the belt, more arrows in the quiver, more bullets in the magazine.
Focus
Which brings me to focus. “Focus on what?” you might ask. “It doesn’t matter,” I might answer.
- Puzzles
- Knitting
- Needlepoint
- Quilting
- Tying flies
- Gardening
- Weeding
- Rebuilding an engine
- Painting (art or house)
- Balsa wood modeling
- Throwing pots
Do you get the idea? Every one of the activities listed above is a hobby widely used for stress relief. And every one of the activities listed above requires intense concentration to do it right.
It’s not the particular activity you choose, which relieves your stress. It is the intense focus on that activity, which relieves your stress.
