How do you deal with stress?
Books, television talk shows, movies, documentaries, lectures and seminars are among the media dedicated to this topic. The pharmaceutical industry must rake in billions just in anti-depressants, mood altering-drugs, and anxiety-reducing meds all in an effort to lower the stress levels of humans world-wide. Let's face it.....life can be very stressful and pharmaceutical executives are probably smiling all the way to their Cayman Island bank accounts.
For the lowly plebe who feels stressed and either doesn't have access to health insurance-provided prescription coverage or doesn't need heavy-duty drugs to weather the stressful storm, the variations of relief-remedies is vast. Herbalists will tell you that ground up roots and leaves can provide a sense of calm. Certain medical providers will insist that by pressing on this or that nerve, either manually or by acupuncture can relieve pain and stress. Health and wellness experts proclaim that exercise and meditative motion will provide lower levels of stress, if not eliminating stressful feelings completely. Prominent world religions proffer that by following their "deity" one can find inner peace and understanding.
Then there is the food factor. Unfortunately, food can be a very real "drug" with which people can attempt to feel less stressed. I am one of those unfortunate folk who use food as a stress-reliever, only to find that once I've felt better for the seconds or minutes that I was eating, even more stress returns in the ugly and non-productive form of guilt. If I thought that stress was the fodder that entire industries are built upon, then guilt is right there with stress. Guilt can be thought of as the fire-starter for stress.....but then that is another blog topic all together.
For now, I'm sticking with my posting title: Stress, strudel and stroganoff. Two of the three are definite winners for instant stress-reduction, although strudel and stroganoff will also lead to guilt.....but maybe they are simply guilty pleasures????
Ancora imparo
