Another way to cope with stress and muscle tension Many years ago I had to endure severe stress. He was dealing with a serious problem at work. The background for it was also strained relationships in the family. The result is withdrawal, apathy and tension, both internal (endless running in circles looking for someone to blame) and external (complete reluctance to communicate with management, subordinates, loved ones and even in the store with sellers), I didn’t even want to open my mouth and to pronounce the words, in general, “the horizon has darkened.” And then one evening, without much hope of success, my husband suggested visiting the nearest sauna. My first reaction was: “Has he forgotten that I hate bathhouses?!” I really don't tolerate high temperatures well. But my soul was so black that I waved my hand and, as they say, went along with it. The bathhouse was not far from the house, and we decided to take a walk. The New Year's snowball quietly circled in the light of the lanterns and settled on the sidewalks. We walked, not in a hurry and almost without talking, and at some point I suddenly discovered that ... my apathy gave way to peace, my mood improved, the first thoughts emerged on the topic “how good!” Oh, it’s not for nothing that my unforgettable management teacher Yu.G. Uchitel liked to repeat: “legs are the wheels of thoughts.” It turned out, indeed, wheels! (I must say that by that time I had almost forgotten how to walk, moving around the city mainly in a car). So, little by little, we arrived at the place. Where we arrived, in addition to the Finnish one, there was also a Turkish bath. In those days it was still exotic, so we decided to choose the Turks. In fact, the Turkishness was in the humidity of the steam, which subsequently allowed me to stay longer in the steam room. There was no one in the hall except us, the only sounds were drops. My ears, previously perked up, began to slowly droop, although the clamp continued to pinch me, and I still had difficulty speaking. The husband frolicked in the pool, lay in the steam room and showed maximum pleasure. He first dragged me into the steam room, and then, after a good warm-up, politely pushed me into the pool right in my slippers! I didn’t experience any pleasure from this surprise - only cold and the smell of bleach. Having got out of the pool, after “I don’t want to,” I sat in the steam room and sluggishly, down the steps, went down into the cold water again, then again... and again... and again!!! And suddenly I felt that, it turns out, I had long been filled with something similar to joy and unwillingness to stop, which I would define with the word “got it!” Then, during the two hours allotted to us, I “wound” the meters and experienced the temperature contrast with delight! And then she lay relaxed on the warm tiled sofa and just purred. And my husband became nice to me, and I forgot about work (even though I spent days working on goals, plans and problems, and it seems to me that my brain hasn’t stopped for a minute since childhood). And most importantly, for the FIRST TIME IN AN ADULT AND RESPONSIBLE LIFE, I didn’t feel the usual tension in my stomach and head! I also noticed that the more abrupt the transition from heat to coolness and back, the more surprising and pleasant my sensations become, my mood improves, and physical relaxation sets in. Although it would be more correct to say the opposite: at first I felt relaxation, and a good mood did not take long to follow! And I completely forgot about the problem. What happens? I, an intelligent, serious, respectable woman, a leader in medicine with considerable experience, it turns out, I don’t know something about health, I don’t know? But I have repeatedly read and listened to stories about the benefits of baths. I even visited the sauna and Russian bath, although I jumped out of there in the third minute! And what turns out, apparently, is the following (later, while mastering bodily practices, I found confirmation of my discoveries). Hot steam and cold water first “swing” the capillaries, and from them all the vessels. Blood, and then nervous!