Joyful Joyful
It’s my turn today and I had nothing, so I asked Kay for suggestions and she mentioned writing about “things you do that help you find joy in everyday life when you live in a great but stressful city.“
I found a scale that identifies stress in your life and my score was very low. (The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale). In another article (The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory), the top five ways cited to relieve stress are:
- Reading novels or magazines
- Watching TV
- Renting and watching a video
- Learning a new craft or hobby
- Camping
Guess what? I do all of them except camping, unless we can call staying at a five-star hotel camping because I did do that.
What things do I do to find joy in my everyday life?
- I love reading.
- I love sending a positive message every morning on social media.
- I love reading the posts that authors write up for dru’s book musings and I always love seeing it when it posts.
- I love helping authors spread the word about their work on social media.
- I love *being* with my friends on Facebook.
- I love traveling, yes, this introvert who would rather be in her own home, love to travel, especially when it is to meet up with friends, old and new.
- I love being happy.
- I love fine dining.
- I love discovering new-to-me authors.
- I love hanging out with my friends, although few and far between.
- I love attending mystery conferences and exploring the new cities that I’ve never been to before.
- And I love that the Mystery Writers of America is honoring me with the Raven Award.
With what is happening in America today, I’m so happy that I still have my books to read and the anticipating of traveling across North America to meet up with friends and talk about books.
So, tell me, what activities do you pursue to relieve stress in your life?
The most stress relief I get is having you as a part of my life. I know if my nerves are in a knot I can find something you've posted that will make me smile and get my blood pressure down.
I'm happy that my snippets of positivity relieves some of your stress.
My friends and books are great stress relievers, of course, but I think my chief way of getting rid of stress is heading outside with my lovely blonde Lab. Just one look at her grin and wildly wagging tail and stress starts melting away–and experiencing the joy she's has when she knows it's time to play take care of the rest of it before I even throw the first toy 🙂
Without books and friends…
I'm glad your dog puts a smile on your face.
I'm with you. I couldn't put camping on a top 5 list of anything, unless it's "glamping." Sleeping on the ground in a tent in the woods is my idea of high stress. I've seen too many horror movies. 😉