How My Past has Brought Me to The Present! ~ A Non Traditional Student, Enlightenment & Marshmallows ~ Part 18

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In my last blog, I started with the Little Brain – so on to him! Being the “non-traditional student” (aka not being 20ish) and being pregnant was … I’m trying to find the right descriptor ~ enlightening.

I was given greater knowledge and understanding about my situation!

Seriously I was enjoying my life immensely (still am!)  At that time, I was 30 years old, on my second pregnancy and feeling great.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound 2-1-1994…he’s sucking his thumb!  He being Jacob!

Here’s another glimpse of my story while attending Iowa State University. In the Spring of 1994, along with the 3 credit hour Social Work & Social Policy course I took and wrote about in the blog on March 5, 2012, I was taking 16 more credit hours, including one course called Human Diseases: Causes and Prevention (Health Studies 350).

Here is an excerpt from a paper I wrote on May 2, 1994, titled Personal Disease Projection: An Awareness Guide to My Own Health and Lifestyle.

My current lifestyle finds me reaching explicitly for a very positive and healthy outlook. I am very much enjoying my happy (yet workaholic) husband and our rambunctious five-year-old. We are eagerly awaiting a new child sometime in early August. I feel being 30 is treating me pretty good and I really can’t ask for more at this point in time (except to have my degree in Community Health Education NOW).

Since I am taking 19 credits this semester it was mandatory that I quit my day job, therefore, I only have one part-time job which pays a lot and is pretty non-stressful (I moonlight as a transcriptionist).  We recently (last October) purchased our first home and live in a nice, quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors (except the mean old man right next door – anyway….)

During this time in my life, and I mentioned it in at the end of my paper,

“A possible cause of alarm is my stress management level.  I plan to learn new strategies to alleviate the stressors that can get to me. I am going to listen to more relaxing music – and try out the old adage of counting to 10 before I get angry.”

Gee, I guess I should’ve given my self a break…..!  And I hope you do whatever you need to/want to do to relax as well.  Here’s some great ideas for you to choose from to squash the stress:

Fun Ways To Reduce Stress

Author Unknown

Did you know…

-Laughter can reduce stress hormones
-Laughter boosts your immune system
-Laughter lowers your blood pressure
-Laughter can exercise certain muscles (diaphragm, abdominal, facial, neck, back, and leg)

Looking for a quick easy way to ‘work out’? Laugh! Did you know that laughing 100 times is the equivalent to 15 minutes on an exercise bike or 10 minutes on a rowing machine. Yep…it is. Amazing isn’t it?

 Here are amusing ways to reduce stress: (Some you may not want to try at home)

Yummy 

  • Jam 39 tiny marshmallows up your nose and try to sneeze them out.
  • Use your Mastercard to pay your Visa.
  • Pop some popcorn without putting the lid on.
  • When someone says “have a nice day”, tell them you have other plans.
  • Forget the Diet Center and send yourself a candygram.
  • Make a list of things to do that you have already done.
  • Dance naked in front of your pets.
  • Put your toddler’s clothes on backwards and send him off to pre-school as if nothing is wrong.
  • Retaliate for tax woes by filling out your tax forms in Roman numerals.
  • Tattoo “out to lunch” on your forehead.
  • Tape pictures of your boss on watermelons and launch them from high places.
  • Leaf through a “National Geographic” and draw underwear on the natives.
  • Go shopping. Buy everything. Sweat in it. Return it the next day.
  • Pay your electric bill in pennies.
  • Drive to work in reverse.

 Freddy 

  • Relax by mentally reflecting on your favorite episode of “The Flintstones” during the finance meeting.
  • Tell your boss to blow it out of his mule and let him figure it out.
  • Read the dictionary upside down and look for secret messages.
  • Bill your doctor for the time spent in his waiting room.
  • Braid the hair in each nostril.
  • Write a short story, using alphabet soup.
  • Lie on your back eating celery using your navel as a salt dipper.
  • Stare at people through the lines of a fork and pretend they’re in jail.
  • Make up a language and ask people for directions.
  • Write a message to your doctor on your hip so he can see it during the bone marrow harvest.

Practice up on how to walk like a zombie

  • Count how many minutes it takes to stare at the phone before it rings.
  • Bring “Three Stooges” movies and insist your nurse has to see them with you before you’ll take your chemo.
  • Buy a fake i.d. and have a free Denny’s breakfast for your birthday.
  • Tell your family you have plans and then do absolutely nothing.
  • Leave a message with farm animal sounds on someone’s answering machine.
  • Redecorate your house by fingerpainting the walls and blame it on the kids.Determine your strength. Thumb wrestle with your own right and left hand
  • See how many people are listed in the phone book with your last name. Call and tell them you’re their long lost cousin.
  • Walk around the block and count all the pot holes in your street.
  • Read tea bags.
  • Give yourself a pat on the back and affirm that you made it another day.

Be truthful, how many of the above have you really done or really plan to do soon?  In quick review, I have done…well, never mind!  Do you have any good stressor squashers you’d like to add?

Jake's drawing Landshark

Back to Jacob…drawing helps destress him!

Today, Monday March 19, 2012, leads us closer and closer to Jacob’s high school graduation! The ceremony is on Sunday, May 27 at 7:00 pm at the Drake Knapp Center. Time to celebrate!

Happy Spring!

___________________

 My professional rehabilitation counseling practice is focused on helping people participate in the world around them, particularly in their own world of work.

 

 

 

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