{"id":13383,"date":"2024-12-18T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=13383"},"modified":"2024-12-11T20:42:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T01:42:59","slug":"unconventional-stress-outlets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=13383","title":{"rendered":"Unconventional Stress Outlets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img data-opt-id=987264695  fetchpriority=\"high\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13384 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png?resize=300%2C169&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Human personified cat at cafe looking out the window at snow\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:300\/h:4000\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png 300w, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:1024\/h:4000\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png 1024w, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:768\/h:4000\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png 768w, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:1152\/h:648\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The holiday season often brings a whirlwind of obligations and time pressures, leaving many feeling <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">overwhelmed even at the thought of it all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">While conventional stress relief strategies like deep breathing or yoga are effective, and may be <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">tried and true for many, it may not spark the enthusiasm you had the first few times you tried it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">This is where trying unconventional methods can make a significant difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">One reason for this has everything to do with your brain, and how it is wired to deal with new <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">experiences. When there is something new (and non-threatening, of course) the brain orients sharply <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">toward the activity or stimulus. It also elicits positive hormones that can sustain that attention <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Examples of fresh activities may include things like laughter yoga, which boosts mood, emotional <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">health, and can also foster a sense of community. Laughter not only reduces stress but also <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">increases endorphins, making it a joyful way to connect with others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Sit at a cafe (like this kitty!), have a tea or coffee and be intentional about embracing the Italian motto,\u00a0 <em>la dolce far niente<\/em> (the sweetness of doing nothing). Take 30 minutes to just watch the world go by, sip on your drink, and this will help completely clear your mental desktop of all that clutter.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Another unconventional stress outlet can include artistic endeavors even as simple as something <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">like adult coloring. When focused on the creation, individuals can enter a state of &#8220;flow,&#8221; where <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">they lose track of time and immerse themselves in the moment, effectively reducing anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">By incorporating unconventional practices into your routine, you may find it easier to manage <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">stress and maintain focus amidst the chaos of holiday preparations.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The holiday season often brings a whirlwind of obligations and time pressures, leaving many feeling overwhelmed even at the thought of it all. While conventional stress relief strategies like deep &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[494],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Cat-at-cafe-looking-out-the-window-at-snow.png?fit=1152%2C648&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-3tR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1962,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1962","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":0},"title":"Stress and Disease: It&#8217;s Personal","author":"Will Clower","date":"April 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Stress comes from the outside (events, accidents, etc). But it's effect is on your inside (cortisol, getting sick, and on and on). However, an event can be stressful or not, depending on whether the person lets it get to them. Granted, keeping external events, stupid drivers, and rampant hormonal teenagers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12174,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=12174","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":1},"title":"Top 3 Strategies During Stress Awareness Month","author":"Will Clower","date":"April 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Good strategies for managing stress","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Stress&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Stress","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=534"},"img":{"alt_text":"The word 'stress' in all caps, with the word 'less' in italics underneath.","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/StressLess.jpg?fit=945%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/StressLess.jpg?fit=945%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/StressLess.jpg?fit=945%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/StressLess.jpg?fit=945%2C591&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2318","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":2},"title":"Stress wounds","author":"Will Clower","date":"August 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Stress is a self inflicted wound that starts with the prick, jab, or slice of life events that assail us every day. But the long term consequence, of any challenge that gets inside us, is welter, fester, and sepsis. But the quiet cadence of the gently rocking boat drains away\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5956,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=5956","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":3},"title":"Good Stress Gone Bad &#8230; it is a bit like Darth Vader","author":"Will Clower","date":"April 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When I grew up, Darth Vader was marauding the galaxy, just being 50 shades of evil. And that was great to know. Vader = bad. Luke = good. But that simple little equation didn't hold for long, because later we learned that dear old Darth was actually daddy Darth for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1858,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1858","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":4},"title":"The Happiness Experiment and Second-hand Stress","author":"Will Clower","date":"January 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a fun article\u00a0on the nature of happiness working the workweek versus the weekend.\u00a0The author is something of a nerd (love that) with great perspective for getting more happiness into your weekday. You data-heads like me will appreciate how he approaches and analyzes this question.I also really enjoyed his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/pharrell-happy-despicable-me-2-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8067,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=8067","url_meta":{"origin":13383,"position":5},"title":"Your Gut Health and Stress","author":"Will Clower","date":"March 30, 2020","format":"image","excerpt":"It has become widely known that stress directly impacts health. This is true for many aspects of health, and the healthy bacteria within the gut are no exception (research report here). This study in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition also helped confirm a connection between stress, inflammation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"Woman holding drawing of intestines over her gut","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Woman-holding-gut-outline-over-her-own-gut.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Woman-holding-gut-outline-over-her-own-gut.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Woman-holding-gut-outline-over-her-own-gut.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Woman-holding-gut-outline-over-her-own-gut.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Woman-holding-gut-outline-over-her-own-gut.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13385,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383\/revisions\/13385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}