I don’t know about you – but I tend to get bogged down with too much to do, too many commitments, and too many deadlines. Sometimes it creeps up on me – then the feeling of burn out hits me hard. Sometimes I see it coming a mile away and can prepare a little to deal with all the stress. There are some ways to counteract stress – a lot of times we get advice that just makes life more stressful (Go to the gym?! I don’t have time!).

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!

You can only plan so much – occasionally life throws things your way that are really tough. A loved one gets unexpectedly sick. Here in California, wildfires encroach on peoples’ homes. Life is not predictable, and it certainly isn’t easy.  The important thing is our reaction to stress.  If the first thing stress triggers is a desire to drink, that’s a big red-light danger signal.

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.

There have been quite a few stories the last couple of days on the fact that the number of Army soldiers going into treatment programs for alcohol abuse has doubled since 2003.  This follows a report earlier this year on alarming increases in the number of suicides among soldiers.

“I’m sure there are many factors for the rising numbers (of enrollments) … but I can’t believe the stress our people are under after eight years of combat isn’t taking a toll,” saidAdm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

There are also reports that Marines are seeing an increase, particularly in drunken-driving case – a stunning 1060 DUIs this year so far.

The stories seem somewhat contradictory – one says the increase is dramatic, but another says the number of soldiers actually enrolled in treatment has not gone up that much.  Not sure what the story is, but I suspect it’s the same old issue of punishment over treatment for alcoholism.

I am sure we are going to see many damaged lives over the next few decades due to the length of deployment and enormous stresses on these soldiers – similar to what was seen after the Vietnam war.  My hope is that as people get more knowledge about alcoholism and the need for effective treatment, that these soldiers will have access to this treatment.  They have given years of their lives to this country, the least we can do is give them the medical care they need.

You know what I get stressed out about?  Stuff that won’t change by being stressed out.

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.