Relaxation

IF you're reeling from job stress, take heart. A new study has found that weekly one-hour stress-management sessions at lunchtime can promote cardiovascular health and maybe help stop that eye from twitching.

USC junior Geinel Johnson tells herself that Sunday is her one day to rest after a jam-packed week of classes, job duties and volunteer work. But, somehow, she finds herself still multi-tasking even on her day off. Johnson, 21, said her schedule is like that of most of her college peers. "We are always doing something," Johnson said this week, fresh off a final exam and on her way to her part-time job on campus. "We never take time to reflect on the day."

WAVES crash, gulls cry, wind whispers and sun warms skin. At the same time, worries seem to fade, the mind clears, the heart slows and the lungs breathe deep of the clean, salty air. There's something, it seems, inherently therapeutic about the beach. Increasingly, evidence backs up that intuition. Research shows that simply being in nature is good for the mind and body -- and the beach may be particularly healthful.

A few days before leaving for a short vacation in Maui, Gina Vivona was on her cellphone, eyes darting between two computer screens in her Burbank home office. She was taking and making phone calls, juggling call waiting, importing, exporting and sending files, burning videos, wrapping up a volunteer Web contribution to the Down Syndrome Assn. of Los Angeles and sending e-mails to her graphic design clients. "I had to let everyone know that I'd be leaving for four days," she says.

Many of us consider Greater Los Angeles so over-developed and so well traveled that the thrill of discovery seems long gone. The region, however, is long on charms and abundant with one-of-a-kind treasures that reward just a bit of effort. Here's a sampling of some of our favorite off-the-beaten-path places. And remember: They're secret, so keep it on the q.t. * Echo Mountain/Mt.

When I peered in the window of the Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena, the performer stopped midsentence to beckon me in. Audience a little sketchy that night, I guessed. Tempting though that might have been (who couldn't use a laugh or two?), I had another destination in mind: the new wine bar Noir next door. Wine bars come and go in Pasadena, it seems, but this one is notable not only for the quality of the wines on offer but also because Claud Beltran, late of Madeleines Restaurant on Green Street, is cooking.

Re "City lite," Current, Dec. 10 Places like CityWalk, Third Street Promenade and Downtown Disney are certainly charming and safe, but the problem is they weren't created by us as a society but by retailers to get us to spend money. Unlike Europe's plentiful parks and plazas, whose sole purpose is relaxation and human interaction, these shopping meccas insidiously supplant the scarcity of American parks and plazas to cajole us into, as Virginia Postrel puts it, coming for the Wi-Fi but then buying "a sandwich and maybe a shirt or two" (not to mention having us and our youth inculcated with whatever new toy, game, gizmo, necktie or jewelry is coming out)

Re "Boeing says runoff rules too strict," Dec. 12 Could Boeing possibly come up with any better way to flaunt its irresponsibility than by requesting a relaxation of runoff limits? And if the State Water Resources Control Board grants an amendment to Boeing's permit, then we can add the board to the list of environmental slackers that have no doubt seen the warning signs of industrial waste -- waters too polluted to swim in, cancers, groundwater contamination -- and made a conscious decision to bend to business interests instead of the safety of local inhabitants and the land.

Re "A second, third and fourth opinion on healthcare," Opinion, Jan. 9 Thanks to state Sen. Sheila James Kuehl for her Op-Ed on healthcare. Her healthcare bill for universal coverage is the only appropriate one offered by our so-called public servants. Several years ago, the California Nurses Assn. conducted a study that demonstrated that a single-payer healthcare system, just by cutting administrative and insurance costs, could provide decent, affordable healthcare to everyone. Instead of pursuing this solution, politicians allow insurance companies to wallow in wealth.

Deeply conservative Gaza City isn't exactly fertile ground for New Age practices. But women in head scarves and men in suits flapped their arms with gusto while breathing in rhythm in what looked like a yogic chicken dance. The recent scene in a hotel ballroom broke several cultural taboos, such as not letting loose in public, particularly in mixed company. But the dozens of counselors and social workers, stressed and overworked since the recent Gaza Strip war, eagerly cast convention aside to learn about relaxation techniques.