Global Stress-Busters

When stress hits women all over the globe, you'd be surprised by what they do about it.

Can watching jellyfish counteract a bad day at work? Would beating up a bartender (for a fee) make you relax about your credit-card bills?

JELLYFISH WATCHING IN ENOSHIMA, JAPAN
A sleepover at an aquarium may seem more middle-school field trip than a means to greater well-being, but among Japanese women, demand for Enoshima Aquarium's $120 overnight package is so high, its 30 weekly spots are distributed by lottery. The draw? Ongoing studies at the aquarium, in partnership with Jikei and Nihon Universities, show that watching jellyfish is literally drool-inducing: It stimulates the production of a compound in the saliva associated with relaxation. Lucky winners with sleeping bags get prime slumber space before a wall of undulating jellyfish—an experience some liken to actually floating inside the tank. Also included: a Lomi Lomi massage class, bento-box meals, and a chance to reach in and touch a live specimen. The Japanese rank third in the world in terms of the longest work week, topped only by first-ranked South Korea and, in a close second, the U.S. Pet jellyfish, anyone?

STEAMING AWAY STRESS IN STYRIA, AUSTRIA
At the Rogner Bad Blumau spa's coed, clothing-optional, scented sauna, overtaxed Austrians recline while they're immersed in up to eight different sweet-smelling, health-boosting "atmospheres." Each aroma is mixed with water, then poured over the sauna's hot rocks, turning devotees into a sort of human infusion. The Good Morning infusion (with lemongrass or birch oil) invigorates, the Honey nourishes your skin, the Ice—a burst of cold mist—cures bronchial ailments, while the signature mineral-water infusion—in which you're enveloped by steam from the resort's indigenous hot springs—treats, well, everything else: the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and bladder. Plus, in a 2006 study from the University of Maribar in Slovenia, mineral-water treatments killed 21 percent of cervical cancer cells. (www.blumau.com)