Hope you all had a good Sunday!
I CANNOT believe it, but I made it through the High Holy Days. Wow! For those of you who don't know, these are the most awe-inspiring, meaningful days of the Jewish calendar. We are supposed to examine our souls, our lives, and our relationships, and look for ways to be better in the coming year.
As a rabbi, I give my biggest sermons, lead the longest worship services, and have the most stress before and during the holy days. Due to my back pain, I was quite concerned in the weeks leading up to these days - how was I going to be able to do my job? I needed to stand for 11 hours of services yesterday. Luckily, the day was so filled of profundity, of beautiful liturgy and music, and of family and friends - I didn't have enough time to think too much about my pain!
It all got me thinking about how we each deal with stress. One of my most powerful stress reducers is music. Certain songs immediately relax me, get my feet tapping, or bring a smile to my face. Some of the ones that helped most this year:
1) "Feel," by Robbie Williams
2) "Hey Eugene," by Pink Martini
3) "Midnight Train to Georgia," by Gladys Knight and the Pips
4) "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin," by Colin Hay (mentioned this a few days ago)
5) "Rehab," by Amy Winehouse
6) "Such Great Heights," by Iron and Wine
7) "Sin Wagon," by the Dixie Chicks
8) "Thursday's Child," by David Bowie
9) "When the Stars Go Blue," by the Corrs, featuring Bono
10) "Young Folks," by Peter Bjorn and John
SO, what about you? How do you de-stress? I can't wait to hear what works for you.
Have a great week!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Sunday, Sunday - so good to me...
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7 comments:
hey,
i go for walks , get online
to help me with stress.
have a good day!
Good for you, Marci!
Music helps, or, just walking the dog, or, if I'm really stressy, three hours of Law & Order reruns will usually take care of it.
:-)
First I want to say that my 73 yr old mom's new fellow is Jewish. I've just learned from him all about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Fascinating!
You're a Robbie Williams fan, too??? He's so cute, I mean talented.
Midnight Train to Georgia has been a favorite of mine since it came out.
How do I de-stress? Whatever it takes.
Pure, unadulterated EXHAUSTION and sweat from running or biking or swimming. I've discovered it is entirely possible to be too tired to stress myself out. :)
I see your question for me as, how do you leave this close encounter with your higher power.
This provides some stress believe it or not.
We all have some deep dark secrets that we tell no one.
Perhaps of this, we discussed with our G-d on Shabbos, perhaps we
made agreements, promises.
Perhaps this went on for a while. It beats reading "Azure" or hearing conversations about home improvents, nein?
yay -- we made it! we, lovely enough, had to get through sunday school the next day too...but then i chilled out with my family outside as we put up our sukkah (okay, not so much relaxing as fun work)...then we went out for dinner and it all just seems okay. thank goodness for tomorrow, though -- day off! and we're off for round two...sukkot, simchat torah...and beyond! are you going to the biennial?
walking and breathing, in a 4 count, out a four count-- since I can't do much yoga 'cuz my shoulder's messed up. Otherwise, totally yoga. Oh, and blogging with a glass of wine.
: )
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