Fifty Plus (50+) - 50+ Destressing Techniques

50+ Destressing Techniques

Besides bicycling and exercise, what other techniques, if any, do you use to destress your daily lives?

Recently, due to very valid reason, which I won't go into here, my wife has been under a lot of what one might call "cumulative post traumatic stress syndrome" stress. Things that happened many years ago, and other things that are happening now leave us in the situation of having a lot of little straws around that are just itching to "break the camel's back" so to speak.

At these times, she needs my support a lot, which is one of the reasons I have not had many long rides this season.

Over the years, out of necessity, we have developed some techniques to help reduce stress in our lives. Here are some of them.

1. No phone calls answered after 8:00 pm.

2. Daily exercise no matter what the weather and how tired we might be.

3. We don't go to bed mad at each other, if there is any possible way to resolve the issue.

4. We evaluate each voluntary (and sometimes work) activity to see if the sum of the effects of that activity is positive to our stress load or negative. If it is negative, we either adjust it or drop it. She just dropped a bible study at church for that exact reason. I once walked off a job never to return for the same reason.

5. We are careful in any TV programs we watch. No gruesome or tense TV. We have a "cool down" TV time where we watch a funny video or something relaxing priot to retiring.

6. We try to practice good nutrition.

7. Adequate sleep/rest is high on the list.

8. At times, we have seeked, and found useful, professional help. Howeer, this is really tricky, as some of those professionals are crazier than we are!

9. We have relaxing group activites that we keep stress-free. I lead a men's singing group, she has a ladies singing group, and we both participate in choirs.

So, what about you? Any destressing techniques other than bicycling that your years of life have taught you?

I like to mow my huge back lawn. There is something about riding the lawn tractor around in circles that I find relaxing.

Sex. I'm 60, but I'm not dead!!!

I play with my puppy
I pet the cat and listen to her purrrrrrrr
I listen to my stereo
I play my guitars (but just one at a time)

Since I live alone I can pretty much control the stress in my life. I have a cat and he's very mellow, not much of a problem. My house stays neat and tidy. I have a plesant little yard that is not much to care for. I have fun hobbies (like riding) .I live a fairly stress free life outside of work. If feeling alittle stressful I go out and ride or hike.

I have a sister who currently is on disability due to stress (well a million other reasons as well). She just called me. Last month she paid cash for a house while not working. Like that was smart since she is now stressing over money. She nows informs me besides the two cats, and 2 dogs she already has she just got 4 more large dogs (2 bloodhounds and 2 labs). I was rendered speechless. Just her telling me about her life fills me with stress. I asked who cares for the dogs? SHe stated since she was home all day she does (the dogs allegedly belong to her kids). I asked but aren't you trying to go back to work? The converation went downhill from there....

Bottom line stress is something we all manufacture. It is totally controllable and we either deal with it, eliminate it or relish in it. I like to eliminate it. My sister obviously likes to roll around in it! To each their own!

Yoga helps. Almost as much as bike riding.


Don't know how "busy" you are on a day-to-day basis, but my work is people intensive and prone to constant interruption; this is my major source of stress. I try to be competely accessible during work hours, but I don't bring work home. I do get there fairly early and stay sorta late to jumpstart a sense of proactivity.

We take a mini vacation every other month or so--a three day weekend with a change of scenery and activity. We're leaving on one tomorrow, in fact. :o

Oftentimes, it helps to just roll up the sleeves and dive into solving whatever problem is making me nuts. Even if I don't really resolve the issue, I get to cuss alot, laugh, and feel a skewed sense of accomplishment.

My wife an I are both bike commuters. That helps
We try to always have some event we're looking forward to on the horizon. A big bike ride, a concert, a special event diner, a sporting event, a party. Something fun.
Regular sex is a good thing too.
Get enough sleep
Laugh a lot.

We are very careful with decisions or actions which have the potential to cause grief in the future.
(I would have to write a book to cover that statement with examples. Slow reaction is almost always safer than overreaction)
We accept those things we cannot do much about. We drop them and do not look back.

Avoid watching too much news; avoid TV & radio during political campaign season--one side bashing the other endlessly and pointlessly--wears me down; laugh (rent or Netflix comedy DVD's); nature photography while biking is absorbing and forces you to pay attention to what's going on in the moment, even more than driving the bike does.

MEDITATION. :D

Mine is a blend of Zen and Taoist meditation. It helps you focus on here and now and become less susceptible to the ravings of your own mind.

May I suggest "Zen Mind, Beginner Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki, and "Ruling Your World" by Sakyong Mipham as starting points.

Remove job.

This worked very well. A woman at work hit me. I'd been shoved into a cubicle anyway. I went back the next day, packed my stuff, and left. Now when I visit a cubicle office I feel the pain.

Being thankful all the time for my family.

Attempting to remember to be pleasant rather than right.

Dog play time is magical.

Singing, sight-reading music (piano or organ), and sudoku. Lots of sudoku. Oh- cryptograms too.

1. Sleep, rest (previously stated), +1
2. Don't watch/listen to too much news or talk radio (previously stated), +1
3. Get Ol' Betsy, my favorite 1911, and about 100 rounds of 45 ACP ammunition, 200 rounds if I'm really stressed, and go to the range. The range is out in the middle of nowhere in the Ozarks. It is in a beautiful valley located more than a mile off the paved road. It is a relaxing, peaceful place. I know that sounds strange, but it is.
4. Singing in the choir, +1. This is a recurring stress reliever, Sunday + Wednesday (rehearsal).
5. Pray about the situation.

Bottom line stress is something we all manufacture. It is totally controllable and we either deal with it, eliminate it or relish in it. I like to eliminate it. My sister obviously likes to roll around in it! To each their own!

I have to totally disagree.

I work daily with folks who are parents of profoundly, severely disabled children. The stress of the situation, with a 20 year wait for services and providing 24/7 care to an individual who needs total support, and is 40 years old (and the parent is in their 60's), is NOT manufactured. And, for some it is two or more children with profound disabilities. I could go on and on - how about a person raised in a home with an alcoholic father who beat the mother, and who had, as a young child to defend the mother and hit the father? That leaves marks that last forever and are NOT controllable.

From your view of life perhaps your stress is manufactured. From mine it is not.

Stress is like gray hair. Once you have it, it's very difficult to get rid of it. I am semi-retired now, but that doesn't mean I live the life of Riley (I can say these things in this forum!). I am a professional musician and I teach part-time at a university (I'm also a mathematician). Stress is often but not always of our own manufacture. What do I do? What does my wife do? We try to spend time together, real quality time. We talk, we do the daily activities of life (dishes, laundry, food prep, etc.) together. She has multiple stressors (she is very active) and so do I. Beyond exercise and mutual support, there is the sharing of a bottle of wine, a good dinner out, good beer (my favorite, not hers), playing music (not necessarily relaxing in my case) and the occasional vacation and/or day trips. We cherish the time we spend together and use it to relax. There are, in my experience, darn few ways to reduce stress. That said, I have a lot less stress now that I'm not working at one job full-time and I can use that to help my wife. I think that the best stress reliever is just to spend time together where you only focus on each other.

-soma5

p.s. I got in a nice ride this evening with my son. Just spending time together was great. My return to cycling is progressing, not as fast as I'd hoped but certain far from as slowly as I'd feared.

Denver,


Sorry about the stage of life you and your wife are in right now. Stress is not fun.

I am an Assistant District Attorney and my life is one stressful minute after another from 8-5. I try to leave it at work. Usually works.

Besides exercise? Sex and Maker's Mark. I'm serious. Unfortunately, I ride or run EVERYday. Sex and Maker's Mark not as often:p

Tyson

I play with the dogs. Sometimes just watching them play with each other is hilarity at its purest (and cheapest). My puppy likes to be petted and seems to know when it's time for me to be interrupted to pet or play with him.

Regular exercise besides riding. It keeps my mind fresh.

Working in the yard is very grounding (pun intended). I have a knack for making things grow and flourish and pruning, weeding, planting, mowing, pollinating, sniffing, harvesting our plants brings me back to an elemental place, a peaceful place, very similar to where I am after a satisfying ride, with much less effort.

Like DF, we don't go to bed angry at one another. We eat well.

I learned self-hypnosis about a dozen years ago to help cope with the stress of an upcoming surgical procedure. It's a wonderful thing when practiced regularly. Once in a while I've achieved an alpha state, which is the opposite of stress. I highly recommend it.

50+ Destressing Techniques

Besides bicycling and exercise, what other techniques, if any, do you use to destress your daily lives?

Recently, due to very valid reason, which I won't go into here, my wife has been under a lot of what one might call "cumulative post traumatic stress syndrome" stress. Things that happened many years ago, and other things that are happening now leave us in the situation of having a lot of little straws around that are just itching to "break the camel's back" so to speak.

At these times, she needs my support a lot, which is one of the reasons I have not had many long rides this season.

Over the years, out of necessity, we have developed some techniques to help reduce stress in our lives. Here are some of them.

1. No phone calls answered after 8:00 pm.

2. Daily exercise no matter what the weather and how tired we might be.

3. We don't go to bed mad at each other, if there is any possible way to resolve the issue.

4. We evaluate each voluntary (and sometimes work) activity to see if the sum of the effects of that activity is positive to our stress load or negative. If it is negative, we either adjust it or drop it. She just dropped a bible study at church for that exact reason. I once walked off a job never to return for the same reason.

5. We are careful in any TV programs we watch. No gruesome or tense TV. We have a "cool down" TV time where we watch a funny video or something relaxing priot to retiring.

6. We try to practice good nutrition.

7. Adequate sleep/rest is high on the list.

8. At times, we have seeked, and found useful, professional help. Howeer, this is really tricky, as some of those professionals are crazier than we are!

9. We have relaxing group activites that we keep stress-free. I lead a men's singing group, she has a ladies singing group, and we both participate in choirs.

So, what about you? Any destressing techniques other than bicycling that your years of life have taught you?


Hi I am sorry your wife and you suffer in this way., I am post 50, have ptsdand a sexual abuse survivor and use many of the things you suggest. You both seem to have worked out a good physical regimen, and that has proven benefical to me. Two other things have become key to my thriving versus my previous surviviing. I believe in a regularly meditatating and regularly meet with people like myself, outside of my marriage, with whom I talk aloud aobut those trauma which impact my life today. I have been doing this for manyuyears and it is extremely important to me to be able to speak aloud, tell the stories, find the language to describe my reactions to these traumatic events. The retelling of the events only goes so far, after that it is the examining of how I re-create these cenarios in my current life and how to stop doing that.

Good luck to you both

I learned self-hypnosis about a dozen years ago to help cope with the stress of an upcoming surgical procedure. It's a wonderful thing when practiced regularly. Once in a while I've achieved an alpha state, which is the opposite of stress. I highly recommend it.

+1
I had surgery last year and to prepare I bought a meditation CD by Peggy Huddleston. It really worked to keep me from getting nervous before surgery, and I continue to use it to help quiet my worried mind. My problem is that the older I get, the more easily I wake up during the night. Once the worries kick in, it's really hard to fall back to sleep. I've practiced various techniques to distract myself from my worries: I memorized the alphabet backwards (do cops really expect people to be able to do that on the fly to prove that they are not intoxicated? I really had to practice, and I was sober!); sometimes I think about all the positive things in my life; although I'm not really religious, I find that praying for others who are having a tough time has a calming effect, too. Focusing on my breathing helps sometimes. I have a bag of tricks and have to mix it up because the same technique seldom works for long. All I know is that the intense worries I feel in the middle of the night seem much less frightening in the light of day.

I always assumed that once I retire, I won't really have anything left to worry about. Well, my stepfather has been retired for over 20 years, and he told me that wakes up in the middle of the night and worries about dumb stuff like the funny noise the washing machine was making earlier that day! :p

After 22 years as a cop, I retired and then managed other peoples money for a while. Nothing stresses me now. However, I remember. Many of the people here have listed coping mechanisms (?). There are some things that you just cannot control (like beaucratic screwups, juries, organizational politics, family members problems) and you have to accept that they will occur. I have found that you can affect your own planning and time to some degree.:) So:
One time period a week, a day or four hours, scheduled NOTHING at all. It is all yours do do sponaneuosly as you would like. Do not schedule "bike ride" or anything other than MY TIME. then if you want to go ride, fine. But if someone finds something for you to do then you realize that it really isn't your time because you just gave them control. My time.
I think that Yoga will keep the knots out of your body and I have often wished that I had gotten into that routine early in my first career. Massage could be a monthly treat too.
Your wife is lucky that you both can work together on these aspects of your lives togther. Others are surely grateful for your dedication and compassion. However, if it is possible you both have to disconnect regularly -in ways other than drugs or alcohol. Call them rest days (hours) for your soul.
You can find time for this by recognizing, learning and implimenting the very posative habit of saying "no."
One of the hardest habits to break is that of saying yes to people. I found it such a relief to learn that "no" is an acceptable answer. "I'm sorry but my schedule doesn't allow it" or "I promised my (spouse/brother) I'd be there that day". "I am going to do something special with my wife." It means that you can be truly committed to the yes and enjoy your own participation with no dark clouds looming or feelings of guilt. It also means that IF time becomes available later, then you will be a bonus for those involved in whatever activity they want you to give up YOUR valuable time to lead or to plan or participate in. I treasure friends and committee members that can say "no". They are forthright as opposed to accomidating and they have put a solid value on their own personal time and effort. They truly recognize my own "No". And guess what? They are not offended and the world does not fall apart. I value them and they recipricate.

Planning, goal setting, and list making all help relieve stress because you know what you must do, can do and then you can eliminate those satellite intrusions that "sound like fun" or "someone should do this" but you now recognize as intruding into your limited time. I really enjoy crossing things off of lists because the time and worry (stress) that it frees up means that I can add activities like "Southern Tier" to my spring '08 calendar. I do this with a clear conscience and I am sure you of all people can truly appreciate that.:D

Anyway, that is how I have learned to deal with stress. It works for me.

Move half way around the world, and keep the wife in the US half the time.
(Thats a supportive spouse statement, She teaches music at a university, She Lives her passion, I support hers and Vice Versa).

I have to totally disagree. .... That leaves marks that last forever and are NOT controllable. From your view of life perhaps your stress is manufactured. From mine it is not.

DnvrFox,

Yes, many circumstances are stressing. The good news is that you can choose your reaction.

You may want to check out Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. He came to the realization that he could choose his reaction to a given situation and find calmness in any situation while prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. It's certainly an inspiring story.

Sakyong Mipham, whom I mentioned earlier has a similar message. And in fact, that is one of the bigger messages of Taoism. You cannot choose your circumstances, but you can choose your inner reaction.

No one is saying that it's intuitive. Very little in our culture helps us know how. And of course, those of us in the 50+ forum have our mental habits pretty well ingrained.

External activities like singing are good. I think that the reason they help is that they are a form of meditation. To sing you must be focused on the present moment and keep your focus despite any thoughts that may occur to you while singing.

The difference with formal meditiation is that you are focused on dropping the extraneous thoughts and become more aware of them and your techniques in dropping them. That's where meditation has helped me. It helped me to learn to distance myself from the seemingly overwhelming emotional and internal messages I give myself.

You might want to check out Frankl's book. What have you got to lose?

I have a 14yo daughter I have at least another 10 years before I can think of being stress free.

I learned self-hypnosis about a dozen years ago to help cope with the stress of an upcoming surgical procedure. It's a wonderful thing when practiced regularly. Once in a while I've achieved an alpha state, which is the opposite of stress. I highly recommend it.

How did you teach this to yourself? Books or other media to recommend?

I drive as little as possible. Driving in this big city has become very congested, and I can't help but get mad at the idiots on the road. I do a lot of my errands by bike or transit, and my chronic stiff neck has improved immensely. It takes longer to take transit but I read the newspaper and arrive relaxed.

1. Play with the dog. Instant relaxation.
2. Play my guitar. Ditto.
3. My wife and I have a "date nite" once a week. Get away from the TV, phone, etc and just spend time together. Could be a movie, dinner, or just a ride to an ice cream stand about 30 miles from home. Talk a lot.
4. Changed jobs. After over 20 years in the retail car business, I had enough of the stress. Been on the new job about a year and a half, and it has changed my life.

Daily dog walking, yoga, knitting, watching Ellen, keeping a gratitude journal, hanging out with positive happy people, volunteer a few hours a day/week, gardening, singing loudly in a foreign language, learning a second/third language, drawing or painting, quilting, calligraphy, etc.

Doing things that take concentration, attention away from yourself. These activities take you to a different sense of time and place, much like meditation can.

Judging less. Laughing at myself more.
Sunrises
Living moment to moment
Photography
Gardening
Naps
Friends
Great movies from the 30s and 40s
Giving platelets every two weeks
A glass of wine at the end of the day
Cats and dogs
This forum
Never (or rarely) watch on TV people I wouldn't otherwise want in my home
Volunteering with young people

I meditate twice a day, every day and have been doing so well over 30 years.

Make sure you set aside a littile "me" time each day. This is a similar concept to putting a little "mad" money in your budget when times are tight.

Going for a ride is great "me" time. I suspect that this is why I like riding in the woods more than on the road. I can take trails out beyond the public areas where there are no people or at most a solitary oncoming biker to nod at and wish good morning.

I own five guitars, each with a wonderfully unique voice. I can always find one that "speaks" to my current condition.

Buy a recumbent. They are more relaxing to ride. :)

Destressing? is that a word like misunderestimated?

Nudism, especially at a beach or resort.

I have a 14yo daughter I have at least another 10 years before I can think of being stress free.
I can tell you horror stories you would not believe on this front. I feel for you.

Letting things go, not trying to fix or control everybodies problems when I can't even fix or control my own. Doing new things. I do volunteer work which is completely different than my job. All of these things help.

I have a 14yo daughter I have at least another 10 years before I can think of being stress free.

Don't think it ends when they grow up:rolleyes: I have some in their 40's who can still cause me stress.

Then there are the grandkids, great-grandkids:p They can cause stress, too. On a trip to my doctor last year he mentioned that my blood pressure was higher than he had ever seen it. I told him I had just dealt with three teenage granddaughters who missed their bus because they got caught in a downpour at the bus stop. They returned home to dry their hair and change clothes and missed the bus. Of course they had ignored instructions to take an umbrella....after all those things aren't cool for teenagers:mad:

1) live in the present. if you are busy re-living the past, you are dead to the present. if you are living in anticipation of the future, you are dead to the present. the only time that truly "is" and can be experienced as it happens is "now." mentally living (focusing) on one time while physically existing in another can only lead to stress. the past has happend and is gone, you cannot change it. do not dwell on it. the future has not yet happened. do not dwell on it. there is only the present. live then.

2) many times you cannot choose what happens to you. but, you can always choose how you react to what happens to you. react slowly and with purpose.

3) do not watch news. rarely is it good. rarely is it here and now. rarely does it immediately impact your daily existence. focusing on things over which you have no control can only lead to stress.

4) do not read newspapers. same reasons as number three.

5) seek balance. physically, mentally, socially.... seek balance in all things you do.

6) do not live to the expectations of others. do not live to expectations. simply live.

7) do not take life too seriously. odds are that you will not get out of it alive.

be....

and be well,

jim

Like you, I am still deep in the search for answers. I see the cracks in our lives and our marriage that stress has caused, yet I don't see how we can control all of the factors. Some yes, but no where near enough of them to effect repairs.

Economically, most of us are probably in the top 99th percentile of the world population. We are not surrounded by war, famine, rampant disease, or the like. We go to sleep safe and warm, with full bellies. In our case we have some health issues (stress points), yet we have decent health insurance, and respectable doctors. I keep trying to remind my wife that in the grand scheme of things, all is reasonably well. So why are we such a mess?

Like one of the early posters said, gardening is one of my best relievers. Along with that, I parked my lawn tractor, and went back to the walk behind. It sometimes takes me two evenings, but the mindless pushing and white noise melts the day away. As good as any gym workout in my book. I've lost about 15 lbs since the spring, and that helps a lot (less knee and hip discomfort, greater stamina).

My 11 yr old and I play basketball often. Won't be long before she kicks my a---! Teaching the little one to ride, and taking her riding was a big plus this summer. The kids are a source of great joy and incredible heartache at the same time. With each age comes new issues. I already see a preview of the teen years, so know that the worst is yet to come. Our kids are adopted (international), and that brings some issues.

My wife of nearly 30 years has substantial health problems. They really bring her down, and shades so much of our lives in negativism. I try to understand. Chronic issues are hard to escape. I believe that exercise and activity will help, but she does not respond as I do. I pushed her to get a bike and ride with us, but then I screwed it up by picking a new trail that was too demanding for her, and didn't know when to quit.

I have returned to faith (started attending again in 2000) after rarely stepping inside a temple for 20 years prior. I also do some volunteer work, although not nearly enough.

The job is very demanding, but with young kids, I'll need to stick it out well into my 70's. I'm not sure that Corporate America will put my needs first as I continue to age (a big concern)!

Not sure that I have helped you any. Maybe just made you more depressed? Maybe it helps to know that you are not alone. I do find that boards like this are a great positive factor in that they allow us to share and vent.

I find my faith gives me great comfort and stress relief. I’ve dealt with health issues all my life and having faith in the future after this life is done is good. Many people find God a mean old man not wanting to help out with our problems at all, but in reality he helps me through the problems I generally bring on myself. (bad diet, bad decisions, bad chose’s, ect , ect)

I find great comfort in a verse in the book of Psalm 103:8 “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He (God) gives me a pease that passes all understanding…He knows I am not perfect and when I fail, its OK, I will try again. I’ve fallen off the wagon so many time but I can forgive my self and climb right back on.

Hope this isn’t to preachy but its how I get along in the world which is always trying to beat me down.

De Stressing: easiest thing is prayer. Pray to God. Some may call it meditation.

De stressing thru Prayer, contempletive prayer. St. Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, this type. Its not like the meditation thru Buddhism. There are similarities but the object of contempletive prayer is God and in Buddhism its a different self emptying because I think the object is not God, the monotheistic God.

Even what seems as non contempletive prayer is good for de stressing. Recall that the rosary, when prayed correctly, is also a type of contempletive prayer. Many who pray the rosary daily will most likely handle the stresses of daily lives in a different manner.

Good stuff here.

I keep reminding myself of several things:

1. While at work, I remember, "It's just a job."

2. In general, I remember, "Don't sweat the small stuff. And damn near all of it is small stuff."

Plenty of rest, plenty of exercise, and taking time to eat right all are crucial, too.

Spending time outside -- essential.

I meditate twice a day, every day and have been doing so well over 30 years.

This is strongly recommended by stress experts. To do it 15-20 minutes, twice a day. Research shows it has a significant effect on lowering stress.

I haven't been able to get myself to do it. But I should.

I pray, and let it go.

A day doing heavy labor in the garden.

I've learned to overcome worry. I was the Queen of Worry, the World Champion of the Worry Decathlon. Whenever someone said "Worrying won't do any good" I had no idea what they were talking about. Now, I'm starting to say that myself!

Positive self talk. Instead of "It's going to be too hard", I say "I can do this even if it's hard." Or I tell myself that no matter what happens, I'll get through it. Our inner thought life is directly connected to our emotions and often our physical state.

Sudoku, logic, crossword, or jigsaw puzzles

Knitting... now that I've finally gotten the hang of it.

Baking, especially cookies. I don't do that much anymore because I'll just eat too much of the dough. :o

Taking a brisk walk

Sitting on the beach and watching the waves come in, go out, come in, go out.....


But then again, I don't have PTSD and I have no idea how hard that must be. I'm sorry for the pain and stress that such a long-term ordeal must place on you.

I've been much better at employing de-stressing techniques over the past two years, but I continue to have big issues with stress in my life. For much of my life I was able to internalize stress ... and didn't recognize I was doing it for a long time. As I got older, I got worse about ridding myself of it.

So I started having "stress events" in my life, like dizzy spells. But I still didn't recognize all of the warning signs and so would do just enough de-stressing to get by. Over time the dizzy spells and other symptoms started occurring more frequently.

Then about 4 years ago, I got into an extremely high stress period in my life. Two of my children were having problems, I had some health problems, and I had a lot of stress in the workplace (largely staff personnel issues from some staff who just decided to stop working hard). After about 18 months of that, of living in the stress "red zone," my mind decided to take things into its own "hands" and kinda shut down. To the point of it being hard to think and function.

After trying a few short, ineffective vacations, I eventually had to take a month off, and spent two weeks in a cabin near Estes Park, Colorado, to de-stress my system. Intellectually, it was a fascinating learning experience. I didn't know one's mind could do something like that.

Since then I've been much better at giving this attention. But, unfortunately, there has been long-term negative effects. Most notably that I can't deal well with stress anymore. My capacity to do so is but a shadow of what it once was. Kinda like a knee injury that one didn't treat properly and then was re-injured over and over again, to the point of it becoming a chronic problem. Taking a few weeks off doesn't return it to full health. Like old NFL players who not only are no longer prime athletes, but can hardly walk now.

I'm fine when I'm taking days off work and have no stressing problem at home. Feel as good as I ever have. But when the stress and tension levels come up, it is very hard to deal with it. My work situation is the best it has ever been in terms of great relationships with my boss and the managers who report to me. All of personnel problems have been dealt with and my staff's productivity is the best it has ever been. I'm getting A+ reviews. But I can hardly face going into work each morning, fearful of the stress that might be there.

If I could have my work environment just the way it is now, and I could go back to where I was 5 years ago, I would be having the time of my life. Instead on Monday morning of each 5-day work week, I wonder how and if I will make it to the end of the week. If I didn't have a wife and child dependent upon my income and my retirement, I know what I'd do. I'd up and quit and just deal with whatever would come.

Again, very interesting to me as an observer. Not so great as the subject.

Biking and getting into better shape has helped. Having fun biking-centric long weekends to look forward to has been great. Such as spending this 4-day long weekend in Red Wing. Biking isn't quite as good a stress reliever as walking/hiking yet, but it has been much better at getting me in better condition.

So I now have a healthy respect for what long-term stress can do to a person.