Relieve Stress With Boxes of Things

First, I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist or therapist of any kind. But....... I do know what works for me when it comes to relieving stress and I want to share it.

A long time ago, I went to a hypnotist in an effort to give up smoking. He was highly recommended to me by someone who had used him. He was someone her therapist used in her practice. This man was a professional with many degrees in psychology, and it worked. I stopped smoking.

In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that as children we all have boxes of things. We have toy boxes, suitcases full of dolls clothes, a chest of dress up clothes, a cigar box with odds and ends or a shoebox with treasure. He indicated that these simple boxes gave us joy as children and they can work as adults. Just take them out and "play" with them.

Over the years, I discovered he is right. I am going to let you in on the ways I use boxes to relax and relieve stress.

It was a store front on a side street and some of the neighborhood ladies worked there doing the beading work. It was both commercial and retail. They received garments from manufacturers and did the beading. People from the neighborhood also walked in and got bead work done. This was especially popular for mother-of-the-bride dresses.

The sequins came strung on a single thread, so it looked like a 18 inch long worm. The ladies had a tool that would grab the sequin off the string and attach it to the garment. Once they started a string, if they didn't use up all the sequins they had to discard the rest. My father, spoke to them and managed to procure all these broken strings for my sister and I to play with. We had shoe boxes full of sequins. We sewed sequins on all our little doll clothes and make other craft projects. Sticking the sequins into styrofoam balls with straight pins was a way to make Christmas ornaments.

Sometimes we spend hours just sorting them out into little pill bottles. I used pretend they were jewels and I would run my fingers through them as I held them up to the light and let them sparkle.

I still have the box, and when I come across it in the closet, it still brings back calming joyful memories when I open it and look at it.

Men Have Boxes of Things Too

Men have boxes of old jewerly too. Especially if they are from the era where cuff links and tie clasps were used everyday. Younger men may have a box of their father's cuff links and tie clasps. How about high school rings? Cub scout badges? Keychains? Military medals? Your toolbox?

Do you have a great big pile of baseball cards, comic books?

Do you have a stash of records? Even if you don't have a phonograph, look through the album covers. If you have a phonograph, play some of them.

I try to keep it neat-----really!

If I am in a hurry and I pull on one of the scarves, the whole drawer gets messed up. And, I don't care. Eventually, I have to go through it and sort things out and fold. Running my hands through the silky fabric and looking at the beautiful colors as I re-arrange things, is so soothing.

It gives me the same "up" feeling as looking through a kaliedoscope or rainbows in a prism.

It's the same as when you were little and you had boxes of costumes you pulled out. Or trying on your parent's clothes and playing dress up. There is a certain amount of joy in going through clothes that you stored away and relive the happy memories.

Look in the attic, basement or back of big closet. The backs of dresser drawers or jewelry boxes.