There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. —Vicki Baum

 
TangoPango. Creative Commons.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected.
—Anonymous

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.
—Anonymous

 
a4gpa. Creative Commons license.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
—e.e. cummings

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
—Yiddish Proverb

OK, take a deep breath. Now put your hand on your belly. Imagine your stomach jiggling, as if you are starting to laugh. You may have just taken a step toward reducing stress hormone levels.
—Kelley Colihan, WebMD Medical News

A lot is going on in my life right now…nothing earth-shaking, and most of it fun. But I’ve been easily startled by noise and have been feeling “nervous”. So I looked in my bag of stress management tricks and have been experimenting with some of my favorites:

• Singing and dancing,
• Laughing out loud, and
• Using a biofeedback device

The device I use is called the StressEraser (I don’t get paid for this plug, but it does work for me.) I use it at bedtime to sleep relaxed at night, and to check how I’m doing during the day. As I said, I’m experimenting to see what works best for me. I’ll let you know what I find out in next week’s post.

In the meantime, what about you? What techniques do you use? What are your stress secrets? Please share your experience in the comments section.

Thanks to bikehikebabe, Robert, Mark, and Jackie for commenting on last week’s post.