So here are five ways to beat stress without adding more stress.

1. Take a brisk walk around the block.  A lot of times we think if we can’t put aside a half hour or more for exercise, we may as well skip it. Not true. Studies show that even short bursts of activity can be healthy.  Why not take 15 minutes to walk around the block?  Fifteen is better than zero.   I find I can fit in these short walks – it’s helped since a dog joined our house – I can’t very well tell him I’m too busy to walk him unless I want little surprises on the floor.

Maybe you only have 10 minutes. Okay, take a quick 10-minute walk.  Bring your sneakers to work – pop them on at lunch – walk.  It will revive you, decrease tension, and get your blood moving.

2. Take a hot shower. Already took a shower in the morning? That doesn’t mean you can’t take a nice hot shower before you go to bed. It can actually relax you and some people find it reduces insomnia. It only takes 10 minutes or so, a towel off, pull on your night clothes.  Maybe you will have to dry  your hair – if that’s too much to do twice a day, buy a shower cap

3. Add another serving of fruits and vegetables to your diet.  Are you someone who eats a lot of processed foods? Drop two servings of processed garbage and add two servings of fruit or vegetables. The added fiber, vitamins, and just-plain-health-naturalness is good for you, and over time most people find they handle stress better when they aren’t eating processed foods.  Eating a lot of sugar is a sure path to lower tolerance for stress.

4. Call a friend.  Fifteen minutes of hey, how you doing can do a lot to reduce stress.  Ask them what is going on with them rather than whining about your life – you’d be surprised how much better you feel when you listen to someone else’s problems empathetically (that means not thinking – oh, she thinks SHE has problems? She should have MY life!).  Be a good friend for that call.

5. Read a book. It doesn’t have to be Tolstoi or Hawkings.  It can be a piece of utter trash. I read over two weeks the whole Sookie Stackhouse series (the novels TruBlood is based on) – they were fun, fast reads. They won’t win a Pulitzer, but who cares? I totally forgot my troubles during that marathon of 7 or 8 books.   I bought a Kindle this year – so I can download a classic, a history book, or just a few hundred pages of some lightweight thriller depending on my mood.  I get instant gratification and it keeps me reading because I don’t have to go to the bookstore.

Do you have some tips for beating stress? Share them in the comments!

Developing a strong base of support in meetings, having a sponsor, focusing on healthy stress relievers such as exercise, meditation, and meetings builds a buffer between us and that drink. Think of it as “conditioning” so that when major, unexpected life events that cause enormous stress occur your first reaction is not to have a drink.

One of the risks of not “conditioning” in this way is that I can become complacent. Life is humming along, everything is hunky dory.  No cravings, no thoughts about relieving stress with alcohol or drugs.

But if I’m also not prepping myself for that inevitable “bad event” that occurs in everyone’s life at some point, I put myself at risk for falling back on the thing that I once thought helped me: alcohol.

Recovery is about being able to deal with all life has to offer without resorting to drugs or alcohol when stress, anxiety, sadness and other feelings come up due to life events. It’s not something I take lightly.

You know eXACTly what I’m talking about.  It’s called obsessing. Or, when it’s really intense, perseveration – like, drop it already!

You know that feeling when you are trying to fall asleep but your brain is processing your day, tomorrow, what you have to do, what you are dreading doing?  I literally sometimes have to say to myself – you get 30 seconds more of this then you are DONE (believe it or not, that works, but for some reason I forget to say it to myself until I’ve put in at least a solid hour of chattering in the brain).

One way I’ve combated this is facing things head on as soon as possible. Believe me, I don’t do that all the time, but I’ve gotten better. Don’t leave things hanging, don’t put off uncomfortable things – just get it done so you can stop worrying about getting it done.