Stress happens. It’s something that happens to us on a day-to-day basis, and everyone deals with it in a variety of ways.
Call me strange, but I’ve been dealing with stress in a couple of polar opposite manners: baby photos and heavy metal. I work in a marketing communications department with a lot of ladies who are just starting families. As a result, I’ve attended my fair share of baby showers at work and have accumulated a good number of baby announcements.
Babies are…cute, cuddly, soft, sometimes smell good, innocent (sort of) and bring joy into people’s lives. So when I receive these baby announcements from my colleagues, I’ve started pinning them up to my cubicle wall. When I feel tension and stress rising at work, I’ll quickly stare at these baby announcements and a calmness and a sense of joy and peace comes over me. I smile reflecting on the “big picture” – that work is work and Jesus and things of heaven are what my focus should be on.
On the flip side, sometimes babies just don’t cut it and you need something a little more caffeinated to release the tension. In those situations I’ve turned to a playlist I keep on Spotify entitled, “Songs That Make Me Want to Break Something.”
Here’s a running list of some of the songs that I find helpful to release tension and stress…especially if you sing or scream along to them.
Disciple – Dear X, You Don’t Own Me
Red – Let Go
Skillet – Savior
Thousand Foot Krutch – Fire It Up
Linkin Park – One Step Closer
Chevelle – The Red
But Enough About Me…
So…how do you deal with stress and anxiety?