How to Relieve Stress

Years ago, as I was retiring to my bed for a good night sleep, I received a phone call from a fellow event planner. In the phone conversation, she informed me of her upcoming event, the San Francisco’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. And asked me, do you know someone who would be interested in clucking down Market Street in a chicken outfit as the Ragu Chicken?

Well after concluding that $250.00 for “8 blocks of clucking” wasn’t a bad gig. I agreed to be the Ragu Chicken in San Francisco’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

And as I paraded down Market Street, I invisioned the woodpeckers in the movie”Stir Crazy.” And being that no one could identify me, I felt removed from the social restrictions placed upon adults. I began to feel, walk, cluck, and act as I presumed a chicken would ….. I became reaquainted with the stress free life of a child.

Stress. We all deal with it. Whether it be our careers (or lack of careers), family drama , finances, or relationship problem, stress is there.

Stress is an emotional and physical response to pressures from the outside world. Today, stress seems more pervasive and persistent. Numerous studies show between 75 – 95% of all visits to primary care physicians are due to stress related issues. Most of us are coping with a great deal of stress and need to create ways to relieve stress.

Last week, while sitting at San Francisco’s Church Street Cafe, I witnessed a man riding an ostrich. And as the ostrich ran down the street. I pondered over the question: Is that man insane? And then, I remember the joy I experienced as the Ragu Chicken. And concluded, “perhaps, he is just relieving his stress.”