Aside from the obvious elephant in the room, many Americans and citizens of the world have plenty of challenges that beg for comforting and calming skills. Myself, I do deep breathing exercises, drink coffee, and eat a quarter of a gummy–pick one.
These two substacks did it for me this morning:
Adding: earlier this week I rented a car and got to go to big-box stores not necessarily accessible to a carless Brooklynite. I purchased some cheap decaf to see if it works without the caffeine.
When I’m stressed out (which is often because my job is stressful), I go outside in the backyard to do some gardening. It’s like my mental reboot button or something.
I bake bread, the long sourdough process. Just being in the kitchen calms me and helps me re-focus. As does prayer.
Cleaning. A friend pointed out it’s because it’s something I can control in my life. It’s true I suspect.
Also going for walks. And curling up in a recliner and reading
Great thread idea.
Things i do:
Walk. A lot. I purposely chose a very walkable neighborhood, and because it is an older neighborhood with no HOA rules, there is a lot of visual interest. Not all is to my taste, but it’s interesting to explore. Also there is a lake a mile walk from my house. That is my happy place.
Yoga. I get a lot out of yoga, both physical and mental health wise. The studio I belong to is locally owned and it feels like a community to me. I have gotten to know the owner, my teachers and several others there.
Reading. My go to. It helped me cope with a not that happy childhood in a small town I did not want to live in.
Family. My granddaughter and even my granddog.
Friends.
Trying new things. I tried a few this year and have some in mind for next year.
Travel. Getting out of my little world.
I cleaned out my closet!
Cleaning and reading, too.
Maybe I’ll watch this. Or maybe not.
Exercise
Go outside.
One of the best things I’ve heard is to change your psychology, change your physiology. In other words, move.
Got off Twitter!
If you can, playing some musical instrument - learn new arrangement. You can learn to play too (long time and effort consuming process)…
Same goes about learning new language, but may be more delayed gratification to see some result and to have a company who “understands” you.
At home, I’ll work on the yard - mostly mindless pruning, but more physical if the times call for it. But currently in our tiny apartment, it is ‘stress eating’ unfortunately! And even more time on the computer.
Exercise and rest work for me … I need enough of both.
Lots of good ideas here. I’ll add geocaching. It forces me to walk outside, often in a place I haven’t been to before. The act of reading the clues and finding the cache keeps my mind pleasantly occupied.
-purging…I did a lot of purging this week of social media (that birdie one) that just hurts, angers or offends me. Unsubscribed to many things. Also purged a lot of hateful/hurtful people from my “friends” list. Why have this crap bringing me down??? So, cleaning/cleansing. Felt good.
I’ve been doing much of what has been mentioned here.
Definitely getting outside and exercise always helps me.
I have been burning a nice smelling candle that brings me joy.
Watching our sports teams a lot. Go Lions! Since they haven’t been good forever, this has been a great season!
