Scientific studies say that we need to lower our stress at regular times during the day, the week and the year. For daily stress, you have probably heard that you should get up and stretch or walk around at least once an hour. And taking 3 deep breaths works in the moment just about any time.*
For yearly stress, we all aspire to the 2 week vacation (minimum) for restoring creativity and energy- at least until you get home and have to do all the work that was waiting for you while you laid on the beach, or chased your kids around the campfire.
What about weekly stress? Yesterday, we hiked with some family and friends up the Sam Merrill Trail out of Altadena, Ca. This was clearly no secret place as there was a large number of people pouring in the gates of the Cobb estate as we met at the trailhead at 8 a.m. A steady gentle uphill for 3 miles on a foggy Saturday led to Echo Mountain where just before the turn of the 20th century Thaddeus Lowe built a hotel and tennis courts. There was no road to the hotel so you hiked or took the funicular that Lowe built up the steep sides of the mountain. The first hotel burned down in 1905. Lowe built another one which burned down in 1937. Remnants of the hotel and the funicular remain to be explored with pictures posted from the time in exactly the spot you stood.
Thinking about life in the early 20th century took us all to our imaginations of what it would have been like. We quite enjoyed the site.
On the way down, I got into my own rhythm and found myself hiking and humming and transported into an ancient stress reducer. For as long as humans have been around we walked for miles each day. Certainly hunters and gatherers did. Only since the early 20th century have we been able to drive door to door. Somehow a long walk sets things right in the human body in a way I don’t clearly understand but definitely felt and appreciated. The endorphins were pumping and I felt relaxed and happy as we walked back out the gate into the streets of Altadena.
That was my mini vacation….yours might be golf or yoga or meditation or reading. Whatever it is, do it this week and enjoy.
photo by Paul Dye
* more tips herehttps://www.adaa.org/tips-manage-anxiety-and-stress