qondio.com/Aa38

Stress Relief

By Wendy Ratel of Fresh-N Home Products

At a networking event a while ago, the question asked was "What do you do for stress relief?". Interesting question.

The usual comments were made - meditate, go for walks, hit a punching bag, drink...

Then it was my turn. My stress relief is yelling at a game. There is nothing as satisfying as screaming at a hockey game. Think about it. You get to yell as loud as you want. You don't have to be mad. You don't have to be drunk. You don't have to yell "at" someone. You can yell pretty much whatever you want, you get drowned out anyway. If you need to stomp your feet or wave your arms around, that's ok too.

Not only do you have to pleasure of watching the game, it has psychological benefits as well. Maybe that's why most guys like to watch TV sports and yell at the TV when they do it.

The problem comes when you yell at the wrong event. Softball attendees don't seem to yell like hockey or ringette attendees do. In fact the umps don't really seem to like it much.

I'm speaking as a parent at a youth event. Yelling at a softball event can get you into trouble. It happened to me last week. I was given a bit of a lecture by the ump. He didn't like having his call challenged. At least he didn't ask me to leave the field. That's happened to my husband.

If you've never had the opportunity to yell at a sporting event, I strongly recommend you try it. Let me know whether you found the experience as satisfying as I do.

Fresh-N Home Products believes in supporting kids in sports and hopes to someday pay for kids to play. Right now, we donate product to fundraisers and offer great incentives and payouts when teams use our products to fundraise with. Fresh-N Home Products promise you won't smell anything.

PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE

For "No Smell" Freshness
Natural eliminate unwanted odors.
www.fresh-n.com

I've attended enough hockey games to agree with what you say. Yell, scream and stamp your feet. I coached 2 softball teams, in my day, and that didn't go over big there.

Congrats on coaching. That's a special gift/talent. The kids are great, but the parents are another story. Especially at the higher levels when most kids on the team have been coached by their parents somewhere along the way. So many strategies, so many opinions.

Thanks for your feeback.
Wendy

I am a hockey dad and I have seen quite a few hockey moms and dads get rid of a lot of stress during 7 years of taking my son to amateur hockey.

I remember one hockey rink where there was a sign pointing towards the rink which said, "The reason we have glass on our rink is so our fans don't whoop your butt too!"

It is amazing how much noise can be made if everyone starts stamping their feet on the bleachers at the same time.

I'm not sure if the glass isn't there to protect the refs from the parents - lol!

Thanks for your feedback.
Wendy

That is very possible too. I have seen parents physically assault a ref as he was coming off the ice. They had to call the cops to break it up.

My son got to play hockey in the Capital Center in Maryland and also in the US Olympic rink in Lake Placid, NY.

When my son played minor hockey, I ended up nose to chest with a ref, who I later found out was the head ref of the association where we were playing. He seemed to have a challenge with the ethnicity of my son (he's 1/2 asian - the ref called him a "chink" on the ice) and had sent him to the box numerous times in a previous game. My son plays center and was not being allowed to take face-offs. This happened so often that the coach started the shift with 4 players on the ice and put my son on after the face-off.

My altercation happened just prior to the second game of the tournament when I made the offhand comment to my dad that I hoped the jerk didn't ref that game. The"jerk" happened to be standing behind me, much to my dismay. He then proceeded to shout at me about trying to tell him how to do his job. To which I replied that if he actually did his job properly I wouldn't have to tell him how to do it.

Of course, this happened before the game, so we were very worried about what would happen during the game. My son and the coach received an apology from the ref and it was a great game, so it all ended well.

That's really cool that your son played in those ice arenas. Chris (my son, now 21) played a very small exhibition game during first and second period at a Canucks game many years ago. It was fun to watch.

I followed the link and took your stress test. Can you explain why when my glasses are on, the figures move - slowly, but they do move, but without my glasses, the figures are completely still? Interesting!

Wendy

I think that one of the reasons Sarah Palin might do well is she has already had a lot experience dealing with the politics of amateur hockey as a hockey mom.

As far as the glasses go either your glasses are causing you stress or the glasses are correcting the way your eyes focus for depth perception. If you put your glasses on and hold a finger in front of your eyes about a foot away and then close one eye and then the other eye does your finger appear to move? How about without your glasses?

biblefreeorg May 18, 2010 13:15

Hi Wendy, I liked your Intel "Stress Relief" and I could not help wonder about what you said; yelling to relieve stress. It make sense, and, with all the guys who watch football and baseball and basketball, maybe that is why them seem so more "easy going" compared to the lady of the household. Maybe more women need to kickback with a beer and let the guys do more of the work. Good Intel.

Thanks so much. I think that sounds like a great idea!

The copyright for this content entitled "Stress Relief" has been specified by the contributor as:

This content may be copied and distributed (but not modified), as long as the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page. If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL: