It’s very important to schedule periods of rest if you have osteoarthritis.  I can not stress that enough.  Know your limits and rest before the joint pain gets a chance to start.  This is a great way to relieve a lot of the stress that can come from  OA.  Also, a nice perk of this is it’s a good excuse to be lazy.  “Oh, what’s that Mr. Johnson?  You want me to deliver all of these?  Oh, I’m sorry, my arthritis is acting up, so I have to sit around and not do much for a while.”  In all seriousness, though, rest breaks will help you function much easier.

If your legs, especially your knees suffer from OA, one great way of helping yourself rest more while not having to stop as much – get a cane.  A cane will take a lot of pressure of your joints, and help relieve a lot of the pain that you would have without one.  And besides that, they are really sweet looking.

Also, performing various relaxation techniques can be a great help as well.  Not only that, they can help with stress in other ways as well, such as… slowing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, reducing anger / frustration, and helping concentration.  Some of they ways they help OA include blood circulation to major muscles, and reducing chronic pain.