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.

  • koezie ( koezie@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    Washing my face! Sometimes something as simple as some refreshing skincare, and maybe a little something extra - like a scrub or sheet mask, makes me feel calmer and relaxed. Paired with a warm drink like tea or coffee, this usually helps soothe me when I’m anxious.

  • evistre@beehaw.org ( evistre@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    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 :)

    • piece ( pieceofcrazy@feddit.it ) 
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      3 years ago

      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…

      • femboy_link.mp4 ( PascalSausage@beehaw.org ) 
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        3 years ago

        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.

  • Pigeon ( Lowbird@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    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.

  • Zummy ( Zummy@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    I have a few things I like to do! In no particular order:

    1. 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.

    2. Walking or sitting outside! Gets the blood moving, change in air, sometimes you hear the birds or insects.

    3. Take a relaxing bath. You can go extra hard with bathbombs for fragrances and stuff too.

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

  • azureeight ( azureeight@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    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.

    • plum ( plum@lemmy.ca ) 
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      3 years ago

      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.

    • Pigeon ( Lowbird@beehaw.org ) 
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      3 years ago

      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.

      • azureeight ( azureeight@beehaw.org ) 
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        3 years ago

        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!

  • Mnglw ( mnglw@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    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

    Edit: I am physically disabled please do not peddle me a CBT based chatbot or whatvever.

      • Mnglw ( mnglw@beehaw.org ) 
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        3 years ago

        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

  • gingerrich ( gingerrich@beehaw.org ) 
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    3 years ago

    I take a timed, twenty minute nap. Under the sheets. Undressed. And just let me mind wander wherever it wants. I’ve found that generally I don’t often fall asleep but am just on the cusp when the alarm goes off but I feel more rested from that than when I wake in the morning after a ‘full nights sleep’.