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People combat stress in different ways. Some go dancing, others need a punching bag. You have people who sweat it off at the gym, and then you have those that eat their feelings. 

Provided there’s good weather — and, um, no cookies in my house — I’m always in great shape when I’m stressed because the only thing that prevents my brain from exploding is running. Running, I’ve discovered in the last few years, is incredibly cathartic. It’s just you and the road, and the thump of the sneakers on the pavement. You’d think that it being just you and your neuroses would make for a crazy little jog, but you’d be amazed at how much a 30 minute run can silence the Kathy Gifford voice in your head. (Well, you may need additional help drowning her out with your obnoxious Katy Perry playlist…)

I’ve been sidelined from most physical activity recently, so running has been a no-go. So instead I turn to my other foolproof stress killer: classical music. There is something reliably… sturdy about most classical music that you don’t get from pop vocal acrobatics. Jazz, my usual fallback, usually sets my moods straight, but there is nothing like the clean lines of a cello melody to reset the wires in your mind.

So today’s is the simplest of them all: a cello solo by Yo-Yo Ma, with Bach’s cello suite no. 1 in G Major, Courante.