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.
There was a period in my life that lasted about 4 or 5 years when I refused to admit that I needed to decompress. I had multiple employers, spent 6 days a week leaving before the sun came up and coming home after dark. I was drinking upwards of 10 coffees per day plus loads of soft drinks. When I did get in I would watch series or movies late into the night. I gained weight and developed anxiety. I also began having migraines multiple times a week. Then I developed pericarditis. I lived like that for a long time. Just popping Xanax to get through the day.
Finally, I managed to see a neurologist who confirmed my migraines (unilateral acephalgic etc. etc.) and gave me a doctor’s note and strict instructions. The TL;DR of those instructions was: REST.
So, I gave in and admitted defeat. That was the first step.
Very quickly my stress levels dropped. It took a few months for the pericarditis to stop.
I stopped all caffeine and other stimulants. Stopped the Xanax. Energy levels exploded.
Step 2 was doing something with that energy. Something I hate with a deep passion: EXERCISE.
After almost 5 years of thinking my life would just be like that it only took 6 weeks for things to get back on track. I deflated and dropped from 108kg to 82kg.
You didn’t need to story, but everyone else here is right. Rest and moving your body helped. Mentally, I was even more creative. I was friendlier. I was even recommended to apply for a promotion.
If you need to decompress, I think sleep is the best. If the sandman ain’t visiting, then combine with movement and fresh air.
Honestly, I smoke. Usually hookah, sometimes I’ll have a cigarette. I know it’s bad, but I want a good life, not a long one.
Quality over quantity. I feel that.
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 meditation. Not mindfulness because I need dissociation for my chronic pain management. I basically do a version that I altered to stay as disconnected from my body as possible and just focus on emotions and observing them.
I also use a yoga ball sometimes, helps me regulate as well
To manage chronic pain you might want to look into the app Curable, my therapist recommended it. It’s a very well-designed app, there’s also a free trial (it’s under $100 for a year). It helps you reprogram your nervous system, but it also feels very supportive. It’s like care and support whenever you need it. I highly recommended it. 👍
It sounds a bit iffy to me that app, ngl
You can’t cure what’s causes by a real physical disease causing dislocations in my body, I can’t reprogram my body into making my connective tissue actually work work. I can’t reprogram my brain into being cured as the name suggests
To me this app looks from a cursory glance like the type of stuff I get peddled by people who don’t believe in my disability and instead call all chronic pain “psychosomatic”. I know that mental health can cause physical symptoms including pain and worsen it. But that doesn’t mean all pain is psychosomatic.
If people like me are not careful with what they say to certain people I can be undiagnosed with my physical disease by a therapist who knows nothing of said disease
You’re right that when you said ‘chronic pain’ I assumed that it was more like the usual chronic pain that people experience today, this app would be helpful for that. I spoke too soon and didn’t have enough information about your condition, sorry for that. But I meant well, no need to get aggressive… But it’s also to manage pain in general (there’s a free trial if you want). And it’s an extremely well-designed app, like I said, recommended by a therapist, and it’s helped a lot of people including me. I never said that all pain is psychosomatic.
Definitely exercise is great for stress management. Something about cardio cuts through stress like a knife through warm butter.
I like to bottle it all up and explode at a later date over something trivial
Dad?
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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Just sleep longer.
6 hours is too short. 7.5 hours is OK. 9 hours is best in my case.I wish I could sleep even 6, ugh
For me it’s yoga. Doesn’t have to be long or even a structured session, just taking the time to stop and stretch and reconnect with myself and my body does wonders.
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.
Yup! I’m 21 so it’s not like I have much experience, but stop working as a waiter in a shitty 5-star holet to do the same job, with a shittier contract, but in a much better and laid back working environment has been a game changer.
Yeah I earn less, but I have more time to study and relax and I don’t hate the place I have to go to six days a week, so…
Biggest thing for me is mindfulness in whatever I’m doing. It’s such a difference between “I am going to relax” and “I am staying busy relaxing to avoid processing my feelings”.
Usually a hot bath is my go-to. It’s helpful to have some music and quiet to ponder why I am compressed, what changes need to be made, or if I just need time to be allowed to feel.
Great points here. Sometimes I will go for a walk and then wonder, why don’t I feel any better? And it’s likely because that wasn’t what I actually needed.
I switched from daily showers to daily baths about a year ago. It’s a great way to relax at the end of the day.
I alternate between the two depending on how much effort I want to do, but I think you never get too old for a bubble bath!
It’s so, so easy to end up just scrolling through social media - fediverse included - or through youtube or whatever just because it fills your mind with bees so that you don’t think about your problems, rather than because it is actually what you’d most like to be doing.
The biggest thing I’m taking from the fracturing of the spaces like reddit and Twitter is to try and break myself out of that fog. Isolation during the pandemic really didn’t help those tendencies!
Have a nice porch sit
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
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 :)
Funny in literally midpoint in a walk at the moment… though I’ve paused to get my nails done as another source of calm.
