Host : Soumya Reddy

Members Attended :  Soumya Prakash, Shaifali, Nisha, Prajakta, Bakul  

Guest :Ruchi

First of all, thank you folks for making it on time early in the morning.

I would also like to thank Ruchi for joining us this time.

The topic of the day was  "How to manage stress".

With my son going from full time to half day school, his activities,

getting back to my volunteering and gym activity; things looked very chaotic to me.

I felt wondering what is keeping me so busy that I am not able to feel good about myself

and/or keep my house organised. The more I thought about it, the more I was stressed.

This was the time after Hema and Trupti  moved out of here and I didn't start play-dates

with other friends. Not having a play-date can be very hard on us, let alone the kids.

They were much more than a play-date for us. But I am sure all of us move on somehow.

All of you gave that kind of support to deal with that kind of stress. Each one of you had

your own approach to the issues I was dealing with. Doing one thing at a time, informing

the spouse that you are stressed out, taking things a little easy when you don't feel like it,

not comparing myself with other friends. The assurance that you are all available when I

need someone is very valuable. I didn't get a chance to inform all of you that my husband

was pleasantly surprised/very happy when he got back because the house was perfectly clean.

Yes I gave up my TV time for that day to do that. 

I would like to add my tips to reduce stress:

Selfcare. Now this can mean a lot of things.

I wanted to start a game day every month where we can play some board games

or card games. I would like to solicit all your inputs on this.