Cheap Therapy

One of the many paths at Bruce PitI’m sure you’ve been here before: You have some assignments due in a few days that you haven’t started because you worked all weekend. You’re tired from working and you have errands to run, but you sit down anyway to do your schoolwork, determined. You find you can’t concentrate. You don’t know which assignment to do first. There are distractions all around you. You end up getting nothing done.

You’re stressed out—so what do you do about it?

Before I adopted my dog, Joey, I wasn’t very good at dealing with stress. In fact, I did all the wrong things to try and relieve it, like smoking cigarettes, buying a new video game or drinking beers. All these “techniques” just left me even more strung-out and unmotivated—and cost a lot of money!

These days, whenever I’m stressing about work, school or strategies for Catan, Joey and I head up to Bruce Pit for a relaxing stroll through the woods—for free!

"My fee is two Milk-Bones per hour."While Joey's off doing his thing, I'm able to retreat into the natural setting and forget about whatever is stressing me out. The serene beauty of my surroundings puts me in a deeply meditative state of mind, and all that comes to matter is the warmth of the sun on my face, the patterns made by the shadows of trees, and the sound of snow crunching under my feet.

Every once in a while, Joey will emerge from the forest to join me on the path and we'll have a conversation. He's the best listener I know, always happy to hear what's on my mind. Who needs to spend hundreds of dollars to go see a therapist?

Not all of us have dogs to walk, of course, but that doesn't mean you can't take a walk through one of the city's parks the next time you're stressed out. Who knows? The fresh air and exercise might turn out to be more effective than pills or therapy—and certainly less expensive.

Relieve your stress with a walk in the park and become a TIGHT-WAD!



Comments

[Alex Davis]

wow wow wow what? did you forget to finish this and just decide to write " Tight-Wad" as a surprise ending? It's a cliff hanger!