After a long day of dealing with school activities, dinner, my job and my husband, I stepped into my local scrapbook store, and took a deep breath. A sense of calmness moved from my head to my toes. I was so relieved to be there. I was going to spend the night scrapbooking, accomplishing many pages and getting significantly closer to my goal of having my entire life recorded in books. I settled down and started working. My neighbor at the table and I began talking about our children and our hectic days. After that the owner of my store and I started talking about business and the scrapbook industry. Then I began talking with yet another new scrapbooker about our common interest in stickers. Needless to say midnight madness came and went and I had not completed but one double page layout. How could this be? My intention was to get so much done. I had such high expectations. What was even harder to explain was the fact that I felt great. I felt like I could take on all of life's challenges. Perplexed, I stopped and thought for a moment. "Scrapbooking is not about how much you get done but about how much connection you get done." Women are much more likely to experience long-term stress in their lives, to feel like they have little control and to fail to address stressful situations more than men. Stress contributes to many health problems and needs to be addressed regularly. By participating in hobbies and crafts, women can relieve some stress and take better care of themselves. Scrapbooking is a craft of choice. It allows us to relax and reconnect with the world around us while at the same time building an heirloom for our families. It is a hobby that can help to relieve personal stress while feeling productive. Let's look at several steps you can take to help scrapbooking become a stress relief and not a stress maker.

1. Be happy with what you produce. Too many times I notice scrapbookers concerned about what they get done in an evening or how many pages their neighbor completed instead of being okay with whatever they accomplish. Each of us make scrapbooks for unique reasons and gain significantly different rewards from our hobby. Focus on the successes and forget about how well or how much we did.

2. Don't emphasize perfection. Understand that it's not important that all pages are identical to, as perfect as, or as intricate as the examples you might be trying to emulate. Scrapbook pages are not supposed to be look-alikes. They should reflect the your feelings, your creativity.

3. Take time to socialize. Look at scrapbooking like the quilting bees of years past. Our grandmothers used to get together to quilt, yet I think they really got together to unwind their stress. Take the opportunity to socialize with others. This is very important and will help you revitalize and reconnect with the world around you.

Scrapbooking is a hobby you can enjoy while achieving a sense of accomplishment. Take time to attend a class or midnight madness. Invite friends over to crop together or take a weekend retreat. Remember, scrapbooking can be much more than the pages you put together.