The ultimate stress management!

One day, a few weeks ago, I had a mini melt down. Nothing too dire, just a little work related stress coupled with too little sleep and an upcoming event that was taking up too much space in my head. As a result I arrived home at the end of the day feeling exhausted, resentful and totally over-extended. I walked across the lawn laden with bags, baskets, grocery bags and a very tight feeling in my chest. I saw my husband in the veggie garden and yelled at him that I’d had a terribly day, and nothing is worth this, moan, groan, blah, blah, to which he replied,’ Come pick tomatoes!’.

That was his reply!

So I downed tools, in the middle of the lawn, went into the tomato cage and picked tomatoes. I looked under the fig tree that they creep up against and between all the leaves and on all the foot paths, and in my thorough search for tomatoes I managed to lose all the stress of my day. I felt my shoulders relax, my expression loosen, the tight ball in my chest dissolve. Be it the act of being amongst green things that grow, or the hunter-gatherer in me getting her fix or simply the feeling of warm soft sawdust beneath my feet, I felt completely in command of my stress levels by the time I left the vegetable garden! 
We have now coined a new phrase in our household, ‘Go pick tomatoes!’. It doesn't really mean, ’Please go pick some tomatoes’, it means, Go take a time out, go for a walk, chill, pick tomatoes, do whatever it is you need to do to get back into a calm balance within yourself! Because no matter how well you eat or how fit you are, if you operate from a space that’s easily disrupted by stress, then the cracks will start to show eventually! And I learnt that day, in between the green leaves and ripening figs and bright yellow tomatoes that I owe it to myself to take time out. 
That time-out is as valid and essential as time-in!  
That no one will do it for me.
I cannot give if I’m all emptied out and only I know what fills me up and if I need to go pick tomatoes to fill up, then that’s what I will do!
So take a time-out today, even if it's just five minutes, for you to fill up.
Go pick tomatoes!