Saturday 2 July 2011

How Do You De-Stress?

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Last week some of us at the martial art gym where I train in Seoul went to a cafe after training. Some of them ordered beers to drink. I got a chocolate milk. Then one of the (grappling) students asked me "how do I de-stress" if I do not drink alcohol. He is not the first Korean to ask me this. I've been asked this question before by other Koreans too. Clearly, in the Korean mindset drinking alcohol is a way to relax and de-stress.

It is always difficult to answer them. I seldom think of doing something in particular to lesson my levels of stress. I keep Sabbath, but apart from that, I cannot think of something that I regularly employ to de-stress. Maybe Sabbath is enough not to require any other forms of de-stressing. Actually, going to martial art training is probably a method of getting rid of stress in itself. It might also be a case that I do not need a depressant like alcohol to calm me down, because I do not use stimulants (e.g. coffee) to ref me up.

So how do you de-stress?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's not just Koreans - I've heard it many times among our students also...