My Journey With Health And Fitness – Dealing With Stress
Yesterday was a fun day. There’s a tour group here in Playa del Carmen that every other Friday does a trip into Costco which is in Cancun, a 45 minute drive away. The trip starts with a stop at a taco place for brunch (my husband and I usually skip that in order to have a Costco hotdog instead). Then it is on to Costco where you have 1 1/2 hours to get your shopping done before we head back to Playa. I’ve done this trip several times because Costco is the only place we can get ‘good’ milk (if you have ever had milk in Mexico you know what I mean) and they also have awesome thick sliced bacon. So we finished shopping and headed back. We were about 1/2 way home when there was a loud noise beside me at the back of the van then it felt like we were driving on rumple strips. The driver pulled over and sure enough, a tire had blown. The driver (not a young guy by any means) started working on jacking up the van when 2 young guys stopped their truck, came over and within 10 minutes had the tire changed. It was actually quite a great experience.
I have been crazy busy while I have been at the condo especially this past week. We are a week away from election day for the local elections and so there is a ton of work to do. I’ve at times struggled to keep up with the massive amounts of emails that I get each day along with paying invoices and ensuring the books are up to date. Then of course is the Provincial election which happens 2 weeks from today. It has now started to ramp up and I am learning how to use the financing tool the party has provided me and even attended an evening meeting with the campaign team this week. To top it all off I got work from a client this week so am trying to get that done as well. It is a lot and it is stressful even when tequila is involved.
Obviously I need something positive to relieve the stress (i.e. something that doesn’t involve tequila). And so I try to spend at least an hour a day doing some diamond painting. I think I have explained before that diamond painting is simply paint by numbers using beads. So far on this trip I have finished a large painting with 3 humming birds. It actually turned out really well. This week I started a medium sized one which is a sea turtle. I have one other left here which is another sea turtle. I have ordered a couple more to bring down on the next trip and eventually we will get them all framed to hang around the condo.
I find doing the diamond painting to actually be quite relaxing. It takes my focus off all the work I have to do and when I complete one I like the feeling of accomplishment. This is really not challenging work but you do need to concentrate on what you are doing. There is also a strategy involved in deciding which section you will be doing and the order of the beads that you will be placing. That means while doing the diamond painting there is no room in my head to stress over the work that is outstanding.
So that is how I am dealing with stress. It is really helping keep my anxiety in check and I am grateful for that because if I start thinking about all the reports I have to put together and file when I get home I am pretty sure my head will explode.
