Unexpected Therapy
So the other day I just had one of those days. Classes, colleagues, review books – if it could go wrong or bite my head off, it did. At the end of the day I sat down at my desk and saw a box of 72 colouring pencils. And decided to sharpen them.
All of them.
By hand.
And by the end, they were sharp, beautiful, usable, and my spirits had lifted way up. Who’d have thunk it? Thank you Crayola (or actually, Texta, in this case).
Do you have moments of therapy that just calm you right down, expected or otherwise?
– Jean AAR
Jean, in meetings when I’m stressed out, I will start doodling on a legal pad (while pretending to look serious and take notes). Wish I could bring in colored pencils to the meetings.
At home if I need something to calm down, the main things that work for me are very hard physical exercise, some yoga, or knitting.
I’m with Donna, but if I need something a bit more active, I organize. Could be the files in our study, my closet, the bookshelves in the the little UBS in my public library or the ones in the Barnes & Noble near my office (I know customers sometimes misshelve the books, but B&N clearly doesn’t bother to go through and reshelve them where they belong). Order out of chaos is my mantra, and I like to think I made it a little easier for a customer to find what she is looking for.
A book and a cup of tea in the shade of my backyard maple can soothe the most frazzled nerves. I’m someone who gets wound up quite easily, so I resort to ‘therapy’ often!
If it’s really bad, substitute a glass of wine for the tea!