If you read me regularly you know I have offered a great many stress-busting tips and relaxation techniques over the years.

And, if you know me, you know why I'm always looking for new ones.

Am I wired? Sometimes, but not often. Mostly I just overextend. Could be that “oldest kid” syndrome, along with a few other quirks I've picked up over the past 50 years. But I won't bore you today with how I got to be me. What I want to share is one of the neatest stress busters I've ever discovered.

Note: I do not recommend this on a regular basis. In fact, whatever health benefits you gain from the awesome experience of doing it probably will be neutralized by what you are actually doing. But don't let that little tidbit keep you from enjoying what I am about to suggest.

Ready?

If you don't have an ice cream freezer, you are going to have to buy or borrow one for this treat of treats. And don't forget the ice cream salt. Table salt just doesn't cut it.

Ingredients for the ice cream (not the stress-busting technique - that's coming later): - four eggs (I use fresh ones straight from my chicken pen) - one and one-half cups sugar - one tablespoon flour - Jello instant pudding (3.9 oz - chocolate) - one can Eagle Brand milk - one can evaporated milk - four mashed bananas - Lactose free milk - one teaspoon vanilla.

Combine sugar, flour and condensed milk in saucepan over medium heat. Mix well with electric mixer. Add pudding and mix, mix, mix. Don't walk away. Keep stirred while heating for approximately eight to ten minutes. Add well-beaten eggs. Stir, stir, stir for another couple of minutes. Remove from heat. Add Eagle Brand milk and mix well. Add vanilla and mix. Stir in mashed bananas and continue mixing well with electric mixer. Pour into four-quart ice cream freezer. Finish filling to marker with lactose-free milk and stir well. Place in freezer for one to two hours to chill. Remove from freezer and get started turning the crank (the best way) or plug in your ice cream freezer if it's electric.

NOW... Share what you must with family or guests. The secret to really successful stress busting is to have at least one-third of a gallon left. Put that back in the freezer.

Go about your business. Care for your family, friends. Tie up any loose ends that the day is still dangling in front of you. Get your bath and go to bed if you are sleepy. The ice cream will hold. Timing has to be right. It'll be fine in the freezer for a week or so. Rest in the knowledge that it's there. Waiting.

What we need at this point is an extremely exhausting day. Real fatigue. The kind you can't shake. The kind that crawls in bed with you at night daring you to close your eyes, reminding you with every breath of all you did not get done during the day, and all that's waiting on you as soon as the sun rises.

NOW! Go find the largest, fluffiest towel you own and go to the freezer. Take out that metal container with your name on it. Remove the top. Wrap the canister in the towel. Retrieve the largest spoon in the kitchen — literally the biggest one you can find that you can slide into the container. Go back to bed. Be sure your pillows are just right. Curl up cross-legged with the frozen treasure cradled in your arms and dig in.

You have to trust me here — until you try it for yourself, that is — it is impossible to think about anything else while indulging this elegantly. No deadlines. No chores. No relationship issues. Nothing can enter this time if you focus on the phenomenal experience I have prescribed here.

Wiggle every frozen smidgeon around on your tongue well. Taste the chocolate as you have never tasted chocolate. Search for a minute hunk of banana. Let yourself totally experience the pleasure of every bite. When you are finished, set the towel wrapped container on the floor by the bed. Lie back. Cuddle deep and go to sleep with full knowledge that God loves you even more than you have just loved yourself.

Sweet dreams...

Back to News Home Page | Back to the top of the page