Tami's De-Stress Techniques, Part 1

Yes, part one because I suspect I will be searching for many of these coping techniques in the five months to come.

So, here are a half dozen of my so-far discovered stress reducers:

1. Sit out in the sunshine and soak it up.

2. Write a long, long, long letter to the person you miss because it is a little like talking to her.

3. Take a hard walk on the track and go an extra lap to burn off some of that tension.

4. Hang out with your two sons who are bending over backwards to fill in that gaping hole in mom's heart.

5. Eat half a cookie . . . enough to enjoy the taste of it and not enough to feel guilty about eating it. Give the other half to a constantly hungry teenage son.

6. Appreciate the friends who have reached out to you to let you know they love and care and know what you are going through right now.

And yes, before anyone mentions it, I know there are some other fun, sweat inducing, grab your favorite partner, doe-see-doe ways of reducing stress and they will certainly be on a future list. Right now, I'm just working on finding some inner peace and calm. The other stuff will come later. (Do what you want with that pun.)