I personally enjoy taking long walks. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the woods, on a bike trail, or just through town. There’s something nice about just meandering and being alone with your thoughts while still being immersed in the outside world.
I’m a very flitty sort of person, and can be pushed off balance decently easily. My job is pretty fast paced, so I can’t just go for a walk or meditate for 10 minutes. So my rule is to not focus on everything coming up, but just focus on what’s directly in front of me. Which, yeah, I know sounds dumb but it honestly does work.
Instead of thinking “Oh, that line of customers is long” -> “Oh god I’m not going to be able to serve the customers fast enough” -> “oh my god they’re going to leave and I’m going to get in trouble for not being fast enough.”
I don’t even acknowledge the length of the line. Look directly ahead, and focus on what you’re doing right now. Shit will always be coming in from every direction, but quick steps make for shorter journeys.
Outside of work, hobbies, crochet, gardening. Getting in touch with nature is a big one for me.
The absolute daily bare minumum: Drink 2 liters of water. Eat as little processed food as possible and as little sugar as possible. Yoga for 10 minutes. Intensive breathing meditation. Sleep for at least 6 hours a night and fall asleep before 11.
On top of that, walk, jog, or run 2 miles every day and read things to expand your mind.
I really enjoy spending time alone to recharge. I make espresso, watch YouTube, play video games, listen to music. Just whatever grabs my fancy. I’m a single dad so that doesn’t happen very often tbh, but also why it helps bring my back to my middle.
Alone coffee is fantastic! Sometimes with something to read, sometimes kot.
Put on some music and sing your motherfucking heart out. 👍
This is always a good idea, but it’s an especially a good idea if you have a lot of energy that you can’t just will away or let go of. Sometimes when you can’t calm down or slow down, you can redirect and reframe that energy instead, until you’ve vented it out.
I have a few things I like to do! In no particular order:
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Make a pour over coffee. From measuring, grinding, pouring, and all, it takes 10 to 15 mins. It’s the perfect amount of time to make for a break for something. Then you get all the nice aromas, warm mug, and caffeine general helps stabilize my mood too.
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Walking or sitting outside! Gets the blood moving, change in air, sometimes you hear the birds or insects.
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Take a relaxing bath. You can go extra hard with bathbombs for fragrances and stuff too.
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Light candles, incense, dim lights, put on jazz or some other nice background music. Dim moods and calming smells and good sounds help bring good sensory experiences to block out any bad feelings.
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Lose myself in my instruments. Playing anything requires my focus and forces me to turn off my depression spiral thought patterns and focus on creating something wholesome and pure.
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Planning my evening and getting to bed at a decent time, letting myself sleep all night, does a lot. Especially after taking a shower.
Just spending time at the park or near water. I love walking too, and biking. Just listening to music… Breathing techniques, guided meditations, jogging, spending time in nature. Lately I started practicing self-reiki and it’s amazing. Also eating a plant-based diet. Listening to mantras.
Just sleep longer.
6 hours is too short. 7.5 hours is OK. 9 hours is best in my case.Honestly: Smoke weed. It helps chill me out.
My favorite is to smoke in the back yard with a little fire in my Solo Stove going. Preferably with marshmallows. I can zone out for hours out there. I live in town, but there is greenery along most of my fence, so it *feels *secluded even if it really isn’t. My neighbors have a new fountain they put in a little pond in their front yard, too, so I get to hear the water :)
A couple of things:
- I find hand washing dishes to be very meditative.
- The practice of chanting Hindu mantras Here’s an example Or doing japa
People find it weird when I say I actually like doing the dishes by hand. Good to see I’m not alone.
I really enjoy working on my car. It’s almost meditative. When you’re under the car with a rusty bolt to remove, all stress disappears as you focus everything into an extremely small problem. When that bolt gives, you move to the next small problem until the job is done. At that point, you’re left feeling satisfied knowing that a complex problem had been solved with your own two hands.
Same thing with working on electronics you just comcentrate on one problem which gets you distracted from everything around you and makes ypur mind relaxed when finished
I like to dance. Sometimes it’s angry dancing, sometimes it’s happy dancing, but it helps me blow off steam and express emotions in a healthy way.
How do you dance? Do you look at music videos online and try to minic it, like in a Just Dance videogame? I’m very bad at dancing lol.
You don’t have to be good at dancing to dance, I’m definitely not!
Most of the time I just put on music that suits my mood and move however I feel. Getting into that flow state of just doing what comes naturally, not caring if I’m dancing well or look stupid is really helpful to me personally.
I do some breathing exercises using a colorful blob on the screen and do some journaling. I also do tarot readings to assess my energies for the day and to ground myself better since I’m an anxious person. I guess I should really get back into it because I’m getting really antsy these days
How does tarot reading actually work? Can you explain a little the process? Is it hard to learn?
I enjoy brewing loose leaf tea gongfu style (in a small vessel with many infusions): it gives me just enough to do, and a pleasant stimulus to focus on, that it’s very grounding.
Is that where each cup(infusion) tastes different and there’s a whole ritual kinda thing?
Yeah, I found a neat article that explains it: https://pathofcha.com/blogs/all-about-tea/a-detailed-guide-to-gong-fu-cha-the-chinese-way-to-taste-tea
That’s a pretty good summary.
It’s just one method to make tea. Some teas taste quite different from cup to cup (wuyi oolongs, for example), some are more consistent, in my experience. What I like is that it’s easy to adjust depending on the outcome - one infusion is too weak or too strong? Brew the next one more or less.
Cool, it seems like a good time.
Get a lower paycheck for a stress-free working environment.
Can I opt for a higher paycheck and a stress-free working environment? I think I’d like that slightly better.
That require to face the stress of constant job-hunting.
