Holiday Gifts Under $50 for Stressed-Out Mothers

A mother may appear to weather the storms of her children's youth fairly well but underneath that seeming strength may lie levels of stress that in time will drain her. Why not relieve some of that stress this holiday season with gifts that calm her mind and soul?

The five senses of sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch should be considered when shopping for holiday gifts for your stressed-out mother. Following are gifts that may be purchased for under $50 that will ease her stress.

If your mother has a desk where she pays bills or writes letters, you may consider artwork, portraits or objects on which she can meditate while she conducts the business of the household. Choose artwork with smooth or rounded lines and edges and in cool colors like green, indigo, or violet known to have calming effects. 25 or 60 watt light bulbs in blue or green for her desk lamp cost $2 or $3 and provide stress reduction through color therapy. For $15, you may purchase blue-tinted glasses for her from aromatherapyplus.homestead.com. If she has time to read, you may provide her the ability to select her own stress reduction activity by giving Sue Augustine's book "5-Minute Retreats For Moms" from Harvest House Publishers for about $13 or "The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook" (list price $19.95) first released in 1980 and now in its 5th edition.

If your mother is a weight watcher you may not want to consider a large box of chocolates. Perhaps Hershey's Kisses and Hugs in a personalized 12-ounce photo coffee mug would not capsize her diet. Purchase the candy from your supermarket; buy the mug from a vendor like cupsandstuff.com for $10 to $16. The chocolates may not reduce her stress, but gazing at a photo of her loving family while enjoying her morning coffee might. If she enjoys tea more than coffee or chocolate, a gift of chamomile tea, known to have calming effects, in a reusable tin might be welcome. Lemon verbena tea refreshes and renews moods while vanilla tea seems to produce feelings of peace and comfort. Any black tea may be beneficial in reducing stress as reported in the online journal Psychopharmacology. The study seemed to indicate that six weeks of drinking four cups of black tea each day reduced levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

Gifts that reduce stress through the sense of hearing are many and varied. Celtic or flute music, music with a tempo slower than 72 beats per minute (a little slower than the normal heart rate), CDs that have classical music against a back ground of nature sounds are all promoted as reducing stress. For about $12 or $13, Amazon.com sells Music For Relaxation: Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Chopin's Fantasy on the St. Clair label. Slower meditative music seems to slow the heart rate which is often elevated in times of stress.

How about giving your mother a table- or desktop fountain? The gentle sound of trickling water often provides a soothing focal point for reducing stress. Homedic produces a number of EnviraScape illuminated fountains for under $50. One, the Gentle Rains Rainforest Fountain, stands about 13 inches high and can be set for six different natural sounds including thunder and loons. A number of sites sell the EnviraScape fountains, among them kineticfountains.com, serenityhealth.com, and simplyfountains.com. Homedic also produces the SoundSpa Acoustic Relaxation Sound Machine which can be found at a list price of $40. This portable device allows you to select from six soothing sounds from nature including a summer night and a mountain stream. An automatic timer allows your mother to decide if she needs 15, 30, or 60 minutes of stress reducing sound. She could even allow it to continuously play.

Another idea for reducing stress is the gift of laughter. Deep hearty laughter has been proven to improve moods. Chonda Pierce has five comedy CDs out, with titles like 'Four-Eyed Blonde' to 'A Piece of My Mind', her newest release. Her first comedy production, 'On Her Soapbox', is a 2 CD set. Focus on the Family's website, family.org, has a number of broadcast CDs of comedians like Ken Davis and Patsy Clairmont. One broadcast CD of Liz Curtis Higgs, 'Lighten Up With Liz', can be given as a gift with a suggested donation of $9.

Employing the sense of touch, a wonderful stress reducing gift is an eye pillow. Eye pillows or beauty masks may be chilled in the refrigerator or freezer to reduce eye tiredness or strain or heated by microwave to relieve sinus congestion. Earth Therapeutics makes an herbal beauty mask with Herba-Gel base encased in a vinyl mask that may be adjusted on the head with a velcro fastener. Aromatherapyplus.homestead.com sells an eye pillow that has a fabric outside, a flaxseed interior, and is scented with lavender, clove, and marjoram. You may also buy a jar of 24 Orange Eye Pads from relaxdepot.com for $11.99 that perform the same function but are not reusable. The pads contain chamomile, aloe, and green tea and are designed to look like orange slices.

With a name like relaxdepot.com, you have to believe that this site has a number of stress reducing products perfect as gifts for your mother. Included among these are the Lavender Stress Relief Gift Pack by Indigo Wild for $30. Included in the set are two lotion samples, room and body spray, goats milk soap, and a soy wax candle, all with a lavender fragrance, a scent that is known to reduce stress. This site also sells a Queen Bee Kit by Burt's Bees. This gift package, selling for $25.99, includes eight products from a lavender-scented eye mask and Calming Candle to Herbal Milk Bath and Shea Butter Hand Repair Creme.

Among the scents to look for that are considered stress reducing are lavender, sugar and vanilla, and marjoram. You can purchase candles, body lotions, body sprays, and soap in these fragrances, but aromatherapy sites recommend buying the essential oils and using a diffuser to project the stress-reducing scent.

Whatever you purchase for your stressed-out mother, you must include one final gift. This one is free and can't be found on any website. Using paper and an ink pen, create a coupon booklet, each coupon entitling your mother to one half hour to an hour of uninterrupted time to enjoy her stress reducing gifts. Anytime she presents a coupon, the family must allow her that time. She will thank you as her stress levels are lowered.