How My Past has Brought Me to The Present! ~ A Non Traditional Student, Enlightenment & Marshmallows ~ Part 18

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In my last blog, I started with the Little Brain – so on to him! Being the “non-traditional student” (aka not being 20ish) and being pregnant was … I’m trying to find the right descriptor ~ enlightening.

I was given greater knowledge and understanding about my situation!

Seriously I was enjoying my life immensely (still am!)  At that time, I was 30 years old, on my second pregnancy and feeling great.

Ultrasound 2-1-1994…he’s sucking his thumb!  He being Jacob!

Here’s another glimpse of my story while attending Iowa State University. In the Spring of 1994, along with the 3 credit hour Social Work & Social Policy course I took and wrote about in the blog on March 5, 2012, I was taking 16 more credit hours, including one course called Human Diseases: Causes and Prevention (Health Studies 350).

Here is an excerpt from a paper I wrote on May 2, 1994, titled Personal Disease Projection: An Awareness Guide to My Own Health and Lifestyle.

My current lifestyle finds me reaching explicitly for a very positive and healthy outlook. I am very much enjoying my happy (yet workaholic) husband and our rambunctious five-year-old. We are eagerly awaiting a new child sometime in early August. I feel being 30 is treating me pretty good and I really can’t ask for more at this point in time (except to have my degree in Community Health Education NOW).

Since I am taking 19 credits this semester it was mandatory that I quit my day job, therefore, I only have one part-time job which pays a lot and is pretty non-stressful (I moonlight as a transcriptionist).  We recently (last October) purchased our first home and live in a nice, quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors (except the mean old man right next door – anyway….)

During this time in my life, and I mentioned it in at the end of my paper,

“A possible cause of alarm is my stress management level.  I plan to learn new strategies to alleviate the stressors that can get to me. I am going to listen to more relaxing music – and try out the old adage of counting to 10 before I get angry.”

Gee, I guess I should’ve given my self a break…..!  And I hope you do whatever you need to/want to do to relax as well.  Here’s some great ideas for you to choose from to squash the stress:

Fun Ways To Reduce Stress

Author Unknown

Did you know…

-Laughter can reduce stress hormones
-Laughter boosts your immune system
-Laughter lowers your blood pressure
-Laughter can exercise certain muscles (diaphragm, abdominal, facial, neck, back, and leg)

Looking for a quick easy way to ‘work out’? Laugh! Did you know that laughing 100 times is the equivalent to 15 minutes on an exercise bike or 10 minutes on a rowing machine. Yep…it is. Amazing isn’t it?

 Here are amusing ways to reduce stress: (Some you may not want to try at home)

Yummy 

• Jam 39 tiny marshmallows up your nose and try to sneeze them out.
• Use your Mastercard to pay your Visa.
• Pop some popcorn without putting the lid on.
• When someone says “have a nice day”, tell them you have other plans.
• Forget the Diet Center and send yourself a candygram.
• Make a list of things to do that you have already done.
• Dance naked in front of your pets.
• Put your toddler’s clothes on backwards and send him off to pre-school as if nothing is wrong.
• Retaliate for tax woes by filling out your tax forms in Roman numerals.
• Tattoo “out to lunch” on your forehead.
• Tape pictures of your boss on watermelons and launch them from high places.
• Leaf through a “National Geographic” and draw underwear on the natives.
• Go shopping. Buy everything. Sweat in it. Return it the next day.
• Pay your electric bill in pennies.
• Drive to work in reverse.

 Freddy 

• Relax by mentally reflecting on your favorite episode of “The Flintstones” during the finance meeting.
• Tell your boss to blow it out of his mule and let him figure it out.
• Read the dictionary upside down and look for secret messages.
• Bill your doctor for the time spent in his waiting room.
• Braid the hair in each nostril.
• Write a short story, using alphabet soup.
• Lie on your back eating celery using your navel as a salt dipper.
• Stare at people through the lines of a fork and pretend they’re in jail.
• Make up a language and ask people for directions.
• Write a message to your doctor on your hip so he can see it during the bone marrow harvest.

Practice up on how to walk like a zombie

• Count how many minutes it takes to stare at the phone before it rings.
• Bring “Three Stooges” movies and insist your nurse has to see them with you before you’ll take your chemo.
• Buy a fake i.d. and have a free Denny’s breakfast for your birthday.
• Tell your family you have plans and then do absolutely nothing.
• Leave a message with farm animal sounds on someone’s answering machine.
• Redecorate your house by fingerpainting the walls and blame it on the kids.Determine your strength. Thumb wrestle with your own right and left hand
• See how many people are listed in the phone book with your last name. Call and tell them you’re their long lost cousin.
• Walk around the block and count all the pot holes in your street.
• Read tea bags.
• Give yourself a pat on the back and affirm that you made it another day.