Stress!

[Ari]

I've got a whole plethora of assessments coming up, and thought it might be a half decent thread if we shared stress/relaxation rituals?

My favourite quick one at the moment is to get a raw egg, write all the stuff I'm stressed about in black felt-tipped marker on the side, then hold it to my forehead and visualise all the tension draining into the egg. Then I bury it.

[mol]

Originally posted by Ari
I've got a whole plethora of assessments coming up, and thought it might be a half decent thread if we shared stress/relaxation rituals?

My favourite quick one at the moment is to get a raw egg, write all the stuff I'm stressed about in black felt-tipped marker on the side, then hold it to my forehead and visualise all the tension draining into the egg. Then I bury it.

Thats a very interesting ritual...let the Egg take the stress and then give the Egg back to the Earth...and nourish the Earth at the same time.

Woah. I think I am tired. That sounded...funny.

[Niamh]

Well, there are two things that I do, which are rituals in and of themselves!
The first is to take a nice, steamy hot bath. Preferably with lots of candles, and infuse the bath with lavender (oil, dried, water...). It's wonderful! Be careful with the candles, though. SOmetimes I get so relaxed I fall asleep in the tub! Talk about prune fingers...
The other thing that I do is to put on comfy clothes, and good soothing music (I like Enigma) and meditate. I just sit or lay in a comfortable spot and clear my head for awhile.
Doing this stuff before bed almost guarantees a great night of restful sleep!

[Litha]

A chakra cleansing medication is a good stress reliever.
Open and spin your chakras from the bottom up, and get anything that is clouding you out through the top of your head and send out into the universe with the request that this energy be transmuted into light and then refill yourself with white light and spin this into your chakrasbefore closing them again.
Ah! Like brushing with cool clean minty toothpaste :)

[mol]

Originally posted by Litha
A chakra cleansing medication is a good stress reliever.


Medication...

Or did you mean meditation?

:)

[Litha]

This from a friend, LadyJae:

I use my showers not only to cleanse my outer body, but to cleanse my inner body and balance my emotions/energies and to ground my energies as well. You can adapt the following in any way you wish to your own needs. Since I started doing this when showering, I experience a much more refreshing feeling from a shower than ever I did before.
I leave the shower feeling energized but relaxed and balanced. If you wish, you might try the following:

Drop into Alpha State/meditative state when you enter the shower. Affirm and visualize that as you are scrubbing the outside of the body, so too are you scrubbing the inside of the body........all major organs and name them.....heart, bronchial tubes, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, etc. Visualize and affirm that you are scrubbing away all
toxins, disease, excess fat....anything the body does not need to be healthy. This can also be used as a "body sculpting" time. Visualize and affirm excess fat flowing from various body areas.

As you shampoo your hair, visualize the shampoo making your hair thicker, more luxurious, clearing poisons and toxins and making conditions perfect for your hair to grow faster and fuller, thicker.

As you rinse off, visualize all toxins, negative and incorrect energy, etc., flowing off your body and down the drain. *State*, "All negative and incorrect energy is now flowing off me and out of me.....all toxins, disease, poisons, flowing harmlessly from my body....down the drain and into the Earth, harming none along the way."

Then stand with back to shower spray, allowing the water to flow onto your crown chakra. Raise your arms to reach for the White Light.....pull it to you.....allow it to join the water flowing over you and allow it to flow within you as well. Visualize and affirm this combination of flowing Water and Light clearing, opening and balance all charkras in your body.....harmonizing all workings within your body......balancing, cleansing, clearing. Lower your hands so that finger tips are pointing to the bottom of the shower and *see* the Light and Water flowing out of your finger tips and the soles of your feet, deep into the Earth.

Affirm that your body/mind is cleansed, cleared, balanced and grounded. Use whatever "closing" you would normally use. I use: "So I have said, so it is done, so mote it be.", but you can use, "Amen" or whatever you are comfortable with. You may take this time before
you close to thank and honor whatever deity/Deities/ entities, etc. that you feel help you. In other words, make this small ritual your own.

The reading of it might seem long, but the doing of it is not and I find it a good way to keep continually cleansed, balanced and grounded.

[Litha]

LOLOLOL
yes I did indeed mean Meditation not medication, perhaps I am in need of some! Thanks for looking out mol. And now to wind down and get going to bed, it's 12:15 in NYC.

[Jazzmine]

To relieve stress;

Yell at your husband all the way home from work and when your kids get home from school give them a little hollering at also. You'll feel much better. LMAO

Really, I don't do that. I come home from work and get attacked by my 4 chows that missed me while I was gone. That's a major stress reliever. I love my puppies.

[eaglewolf]

Originally posted by Jazzmine
To relieve stress;

Yell at your husband all the way home from work and when your kids get home from school give them a little hollering at also. You'll feel much better. LMAO



Really I don't do that? Yeah right, who do you think you are kidding, LOL!

Do what you gotta do... stress kills.

:)

~ew

[Selenelucina]

Hmmm. I thought the idea of medication sounded pretty good, so I went and consumed a few mother's-little-helpers, and started reading Maggie's responses to the Druid posts, and my stress level is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down.

Smudging, chanting, drumming, doing Laurie Cabot's Crystal Countdown to get into Alpha state, as well as telling telemarketers all about your medical problems, hiding your husband's ratty weekend clothes and telling him they had an unfortunate accident in the clothes washing machine all are great stress reducers. Buying jewelry (somebody buying from me, LOL) helps a great deal. To reduce stress so that you can feel cleansed to do ritual, embuing a pebble with all your troubles and then tossing it as far as it'll go helps too. Use small stones though.

The best stress reduction of all is to caress a (non-human) critter, preferably a domesticated one that lives with you. They take our cares and our pain away, and I believe it goes through them back to the Universe where the Goddess turns stress into energy and sends it back to you. Goddess Bless the Creatures given into our care. Stressless (hahahaha) Selene

[Lilu]

Selenelucina,

Could you please describe the Crystal Countdown by Laurie Cabot?? I don't think I've heard of that before, which book is it from?

Lilu

[Selenelucina]

BB's Lilu,
It's in Laurie Cabot's book, Power of the Witch, and the one I have is in paperback, published by Delta trade paperbacks. She doesn't have an index, but in my copy, it's on page 183. I would type it out for you, but it's 3 pages long, I can only use one hand to type, and (blush with shame) I don't know how to use my scanner, except as a copier. I hesitate to "describe" it to you, because her instructions are so easy to follow, and perfectly written. It's a stress-free way to get into Alpha state, requires a couple of practice sessions, and then tells you how to get there, with a just a hand signal to yourself. I used to teach it to my therapy groups to get them to focus on problem solving, or meditation, or stress relief. I still think Laurie Cabot put more info into one little book that truly supports newcomers to the path, than any 6 others you'll find, with the exception of Raven Grimassi. I'm not Wiccan, or Celtic, but hereditary Rom, and still most of what I first learned and felt comfortable with, comes from Laurie. If you want it, I checked Barnes&Noble online, and here's the info:

Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment
In-Stock: Ships 2-3 days.
Laurie Cabot,With Tom Cowan / Paperback / Dell Publishing Company, Incorporated / November*1990
Our Price: $11.65, You Save 10%

cheaper than I paid, 7 years ago. And to whomever said lurkers are not doing their part for the community, a big fat raspberry. We all do what we can. With all the threads, and all the posts, I'd have to spend all day and night just reading and replying, even if just to the ones that interest me, personally. If I wait until I really have something to say before I sign in, it keeps me from rambling. Like now, LOL. Hope this helps, Lilu. Selene
PS - if you can't get the book, let me know and I'll get my husband to scan the pages and send them to you. Right now we are trying to figure out which of the wee folk is residing in the scanner and screwing up the works.

[Shatav]

I've always found a good cup of catnip tea will mellow me almost instantly. When I was in college, I used to take a thermos of it to every exam that I had. It helped me to relax and stay focussed even though I wanted to scream (especially in bio-chem). ;)

[Shatav]

Oh, and I thought I'd share a cool ritual that my roommate used to do for me when I was going to take an exam and vice versa.

She'd take a big sheet of tinfoil and fold it up at the edges, so that nothing could lead out of it. Then she'd trace out a giant 'A' on the surface of the tinfoil with a green crayon. Next she'd set up three purple candles at each point of the 'A' and light them, letting them burn down while I was taking the exam.

It was kinda cool, because I'd come back after the test and look at the wax and how much of the 'A' it covered and I could generally tell how well I did too. It never failed me.

[Red Dragon]

I like to go down to the cellar of the Dragonshold and take a long, long look into my crystal ball. Failing that I fly out over the surrounding country side and cause havoc among the peasants, Hee,hee. Does wonders for the there are no such things as dragons set! ;)

[Shatav]

Originally posted by Red Dragon
I like to go down to the cellar of the Dragonshold and take a long, long look into my crystal ball. Failing that I fly out over the surrounding country side and cause havoc among the peasants, Hee,hee. Does wonders for the there are no such things as dragons set! ;)

Heh heh :D

I think that's kinda like when I used to walk outside during daylight hours just to prove to the conservative neighbors that yes, Goths do come out during the day and we do exist. ;)

[Litha]

(that's kind of like when my friends and I come home from a club at 10 or 11 am, everyone just stares at you)

you might try sending your stress into a rock or a tree, just ask first if it's alright with which ever you choose, the answer will likely be yes and just release the stress

[Lilu]

Thanks for the info Selene, I will check into getting the book, it's always been on my "to get list" so I will definitely do so.

Thanks!
Lilu

[LaughingWolf]

Wow Litha, thanks a lot, I'm definitively going to try that shower meditation thing! :)

[Flar's Freyja]

This thread came up when I was looking for one on chakra cleansing. I like it! So here's a bump :D

[Flar's Freyja]

Bumping for Storm

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Lately I've been looking into the meditation, cleansing and grounding methods so much that I forgot about this simple one.



Originally posted by Selenelucina
The best stress reduction of all is to caress a (non-human) critter, preferably a domesticated one that lives with you. They take our cares and our pain away, and I believe it goes through them back to the Universe where the Goddess turns stress into energy and sends it back to you. Goddess Bless the Creatures given into our care. Stressless (hahahaha) Selene


When things were hard for me a few years back I guess that explains why I spent so much time in the barn grooming my horses.:)