It's funny that you bring up Yoga Journal. Just earlier in MeFi was reading a pointer to a Yoga Journal article that mentioned the benefits of drinking your own urine. "Urine therapy" it was called.

Really??? Yoga Journal's usually pretty mainstream. (Errmm, no pun intended.)

I didn't read the article, occhi, but I know that exercise helps to de-stress me.

I've been stressed lately with work, neighbour and family things and haven't been getting to the gym or using my KBs as much as I should, despite having more than enough time to exercise. I feel that my lethargy has increased through 'relaxing', leading to poor sleep, feeling tired, rationalising not exercising 'because I'm tired', and it becomes a vicious circle.

Are you taking the piss, grouse?

I feel that my lethargy has increased through 'relaxing', leading to poor sleep, feeling tired, rationalising not exercising 'because I'm tired', and it becomes a vicious circle.

Exactly. I'm planning on spending today wandering around downtown looking at Christmas decorations, and currently trying to figure out if that really counts as "exercise" in the way I probably need it, and kinda thinking "No." On the other hand, I'm excited to go out and do that, and the thought of going to the gym is keeping me goofing off on the computer because I don't wanna go, so.... I don't know. I'm working on the theory right now that some activity is better than no activity.

This is allegedly the article. "It May Save Your Life." If your life is actually saved by drinking your own urine I will accept modest donations. If it isn't, then let me know so I can laugh at the idea that I caused someone to drink their own urine.

It's quoted in a contemporary Straight Dope, so I imagine the article is legit.

Sorry for the derail, I agree with your thesis without having RTFA.

Huh. It's not showing up on the YJ website, but that author certainly has written for them on similar "weird health" topics, but that is certainly out there for that magazine. Maybe that's why they nixed it from the site? Weird.

Sorry for the derail, I agree with your thesis without having RTFA.

I freely gave you permission to skip it, so no worries. :-)

Oh that's a good article. I am definitely the "anxious" mode stressor, whereby I loop into a circle of getting more and more anxious (particularly when I'm procrastinating) so I'm too anxious to do anything and it escalates the anxiety (pinnacle: my senior thesis in college, where I spent two days in bed, 5 days before it was due).

It still happens in minor ways now, but I have taught myself to work through it with small steps. Before I implemented my coping strategies, sometimes when it happened (like when writing a paper), even opening MS word was a major victory for me.

Yoga Journal, Mar/Apr 1996 (at least according to this.

Yoga Journal, Mar/Apr 1996 (at least according to this.

Yeah, the website doesn't list articles by publication date or issue. Searches for "urine," "urine therapy" and "Amaroli" don't turn up the article. Searches for the author name don't turn up that article.

I believe it may have been published, it just doesn't seem to be on the site. Or, like I said, a usual sort of thing for that particular magazine, which is often more like, "How can I buy really expensive clothing and still feel like a real yogi?". I tend to consider it something like Glamour for the yoga set.

Errr, topic? Right.

Yeah, I think what I find interesting is that in most "Here's how to relax" things I read or hear, it's assumed that you're an anxious stresser, that you need to slow down in order to feel better. Which I think is true for a lot of people, but I'm just starting to find that I need to go blast myself into motion when I start to stress out, because I have such a tendency to plop down and decide not to think about anything, let alone do anything, when I'm overwhelmed except eat and watch TV. And there's no internal voice yelling "MOVE GO MOVE MOVE MOVE!!!" that's making me anxious, just a voice whispering, "sleep stay escape" that's keeping me from moving forward.

I think I also found this interesting because I recently read a book on conflict in relationships that divided people by the way the tend to react to conflict or stress: Depression (submission), Anxiety (immobilization), Anger (coercion), and Escape (addiction). So you can look at which of these coping styles each member of a couple uses, and how these coping styles may lead to conflict, so that two people who get angry may be able to "yell it out," but if one person gets angry and the other submits, you often end up with the dominant partner getting dysfunctionally aggressive at all times and the submissive partner falling into depression.

I don't know. I'm just starting to find the variety of coping skills we all employ really interesting. It makes me feel like we're such optimistic creatures -- even when the situation totally sucks, we're trying, as best we can, to find ways to deal with it.

Well, I've been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, so my default mode is to freeze up for fear I'll make some mistake that will inevitably cause World War III. Strangely, I'm not a worrier - I just mentally avoid the whole mess (unless it has to do with my relationship, then I obsess about the smallest detail).

Yoga Journal, urine trouble now.

that's how I relax - by making bad puns... is it wrong?

Hm, I was kind of on the fence between the Vata imbalance type and the Kasha imbalance type. I am anxious and high-energy and unfocused under stress, not generally depressive at all, but definitely prone to overeating rather than undereating when under stress. So I have characteristcs of both. But the Kasha method, the vigorous large-muscle activity, and the Kasha foods suggested, seem to be the best paths for me to healing.

In other words (now that I have read all your comments, not just the article) I am just like occhiblu. And gaspode. I also had an odd meltdown in college similar to gaspode's.