De-stressing

I have a desk job. I was hoping not to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day when I moved to Idaho. Making a living is a high priority; paying rent and having a life, even though it's a simple one. Desk jobs ultimately pay better than baking muffins or scones in a commercial kitchen. There is the stress factor. It is not an energizing job where at the end of the day I feel like going and doing something after feeling particularly good about a project completed. There is no project so it's sort of like a millstone, like many jobs I've had before; grinding and tiring. Food and even talking about food lifts the spirits of the people I work with: What was for dinner, What's for lunch, What we're planning to make. Needless to say the topic of food comes up often.
To de-stress when I come home, I try to take a half hour to just sit and relax. I read my personal emails. I feed the animals. Go for a walk. And then for no particular reason, haha, I will cook. Using my hands does something to me; it eases the tension of the day. Watching my hands put together foods therapeutically clears my mind. I stop thinking about what I have to do and just do something. I enjoy cooking so I can truthfully say this. Many people do not know these benefits of cooking with their hands - doing the chopping themselves instead of buying a bag ready to throw into a pot or a microwave. These benefits are priceless. You won't know it until you do it.
I find a lot of commotion in households - especially at the end of the day is from the t.v. being on. Turning it on to just play mindlessly in the background of daily living. Taking the focus off of what you're really doing as sort of a mindless cushion. This only creates more stress by wanting to focus on something other than what you're doing.
Enjoy the end of the day. Unwind. Cook. Eat a nice simple meal. Try not to make your environment a stressful place with too much stuff going on. Like I tell myself, "When I go home, it's my environment" - a constant reminder to not bring too much stress home with me.