Creativity For Relaxation & Stress Relief

Stress is a normal reaction to positive and negative moments in our lives.  Let's face it though, nowadays there seems to be a lot more than our usual "everyday stresses" to stress about... like reading the headline news and hearing about the insanity going on in the world, the state of the economy etc.


When we experience stress our bodies have a stress hormone called "Cortisol" that increases.  That hormone affects body functions like blood pressure, insulin for blood sugar and proper immune function.
So our bodies are equipped to handle stress but too much stress for too long can lead to all kinds of health problems like heart disease, stroke, cancer, depression, obesity, diabetes, memory loss  -etc. 

That is why it is important to find different ways for you to relax under stressful conditions so you can lower the stress hormone back to a normal level.  I try to  find natural & healthier ways to relieve daily stresses like exercise, relaxing music, herbal baths, aromatherapy and the like.  Today I thought about how stress relieving creativity is.  Whether you love  drawing, painting, sewing, writing (blogging!), photography - whatever it is you enjoy to create, it gives you a sense of fulfillment and takes your mind away from whatever is causing you stress to give your body time to regulate. It is good to find a creativity within you that doesn't add to your stress - something that you enjoy. As you may already have read in a prior post here on my blog, I have become very interested and concerned about the situation of the Honey Bees.  Lately I feel like Richard Dreyfuss in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"! You know, the part where he is driven to make a mountain out of mashed potatoes??

                                    

I have been driven by the crisis of the Honey Bee situation to make a video to create public awareness of the situation.  It might seem like a small problem in the scheme of things but in fact it really is of large concern to our health and environment in the future if research does not find out why the honey bees are leaving their colonies and dying.



So, get yourself a carton of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and please view my new video creation on the right top corner of my blog page titled "The Honey Bee Mystery" and find out what you can do to help.
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/#helpingpartners
http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/#crisis


American Beekeeping Federation—abfnet.org

American Honey Producers—americanhoneyproducers.org

Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium—maarec.cas.psu.edu

National Honey Board—honey.com/about

Pollinator Partnership-pollinator.org—http://www.pollinator.org/

Penn State Dept. of Entomology—ento.psu.edu/HoneyBeeResearch.html

U.C. Davis Dept. of Entomology—entomology.ucdavis.edu/dept/beebio.cfm