Alleviate Stress Without Pills!

We all have it; we live with it daily: stress. As America's #1 health problem, surveys, reports and studies have been done concerning this epidemic. Meditation, massages and reading are some of the many ways for you to alleviate stress levels. Doctors hand out pills; insurance rates go up; you pay to learn meditation, to talk to a therapist or for a massage therapist to give you a massage. Day after day, week after week . . . this is a never-ending cycle. The fact is you need to, and can, control your stress simply and cost effectively.

Rest is what we do to let stress subside. Doing fun things that we enjoy in our leisure time compensates us for the unpleasant stress we experience at work, bringing some balance back into life. This is particularly important if we routinely experience unpleasant levels of stress. (Permission from, Mind Tools material is published by Mind Tools Ltd of Signal House, Station Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 8DY, United Kingdom)

So lets get this straight, you have stress. You want to get rid of stress. To rid yourself of stress you must rest! OK that is simple enough. Now how does this relate to you and outdoor furniture? Remember when you were much younger, before life's stressors attached themselves to you? Riding a bike, going fishing, swimming, playing with friends? Having a seat next to Grandpa and Grandma, listening to their stories? How relaxed they looked, how fascinating the experience was?

I have fond memories of summers gone by of my Grandparent's property on a small little lake in northern Michigan, all it had was a boat house, a dock, a fire pit, and of course the picnic table, and a few lounge chairs. The chairs weren't fancy, really quite simple, the old style fold up chairs, and then there was Grandma's favorite outdoor patio wood chair. I didn't know the name of the style then, but I knew it was hers, if she was around no one sat in it, except her. That chair now belongs to my Uncle Richard, I know he has had to work on it, some regluing, some added screws, a new varnish job. But it does bring back those old memories still to this day. I go visit my uncle, to relieve stress, to visit those good old days and memories of simpler times. We all would love to go back in time. I know you do, or want to, don't you...

Whether it is a chair, a swing, lounger or any kind of outdoor furniture, they do allow you to relax, to enjoy life, to feel good again. Read a book, sit and bask in the warmth of the sun, a cool drink at your side, the sound of the wind, hearing natures sounds or just a good old fashioned nap will do what you need, rest and relieve yourself of stress. Now that you are feeling a little better, time for a new wake up call!

Here is a typical situation, each fall you have to put the furniture away into storage for the bad weather of winter. If you live in an area that doesn't have snow, you don't have to but you do cover it for all the rain and cold. Every spring you pull it out again, clean it, maybe paint or varnish it, reweb the webbing, tighten the screws, fix it up for the summer again. Every 2-10 years you have to replace it, because of age. Plastic furniture gets brittle, metal gets rusty, oak and cedar does rot out eventually, aluminum gets wore out, bent or worse...breaks. This adds stress to your life, even if it is just for a short time. True, summer time does allow most of that stress to disappear. Now then the cost of replacement, repairs, your time getting it ready, and the extra space used for storage does add up! For example a good cedar adirondack chair costs close to $300 and lasts for about 4 years, if you don't do anything at all except use it, about $77 dollars a year plus upkeep, varnish, your time, etc. A good oak chair will cost a little more, around $350 and lasts about 6 years. Let us say we treat it just the same as the cedar chair, now you have about $60 a year plus varnish, paint, upkeep and so on. Hmmm sounds a bit costly to me. Still sounds like stress to me.

OK time to really get rid of stress, outdoor furniture made from teak wood, yep that really expensive stuff. That same style chair, the adirondack, in teak it costs around $660! Wow that is expensive! Oh my I'm having a heart attack...oh nope just a bad attempt at humor. Seriously, yes teak is expensive, but here is something for you to think about, ready? Teak lasts 75 years, leave it outside, don't even cover it, don't varnish it, don't do anything but clean it now and then, and enjoy! This means more room in that storage shed for other stuff, you don't have to pack it away, or pull it out any more! Just wash it down now and then. Less stress...hmmm...virtually no work, more time to relax, to enjoy life....OK wait a minute you might be asking about now, hey he told me about how much that other stuff cost me a year and he hasn't said a thing about this teak stuff and how expensive it is...OK, OK one adirondack chair made from teak, less then $9.00 a year and no work!

Less stress means you can live longer, less heart problems, less to worry about diabetes, less headaches, less muscle aches. See, any outdoor furniture that you use will allow you to release stress, that is a given. Teak outdoor furniture will relieve more stress, easier for you.

Is this a blatant article about my products? Yes it is, but I want you to think about releasing some of that stress you are feeling. Read, walk, relax, take up a hobby, stop and smell some roses, no rushing around, no pushing yourself to the limit. Just sit down, relax and enjoy your life!

I want to personally thank you for reading this. Hopefully you will get a bit of a laugh and something new to think about.

Sincerely,
Bruce Gokey
Co-Owner of VanBar's Outdoor Patio Furniture

VanBar, All Rights Reserved. VanBar grants unlimited license to reproduce this article, unaltered, on websites and e-zines, with the condition that all links and this notice are preserved.