Whether you're in high school or you're an adult having to deal with life in the real world, you've dealt with stress quite a few times. For me, I'm just one big walking stressy mess. My stress began in high school and doesn't seem like it's going to be leaving any time soon. Since I'm constantly stressed, I've searched far and wide for ways to possibly relieve it. Along my search I've found a several solutions. While these are only a few of them, hopefully they can help you too!
1) Kinetic Sand
Before you roll your eyes and click off this article, hear me out. Sand and the beach are very calming sounds and sensations. Since I live in Kentucky and the nearest ocean is hours away, I have to make do with what I have. There just seems to be something about this sand that's always fascinated me. I don't know if it's the way it falls out of my hand or the fact that it's always super soft. Either way, this stuff reduces my stress level the moment I start playing with it.
2) Hanging Out With Friends
This is an obvious option. I know that the moment I hang out with my friends I can feel the stress leaving my body. The stress leaves and happiness and excitement replace it. I always know that I can count on my friends to make me feel somewhat normal again. That is until we start talking about someone we don't like or a boy one of us has a crush on. Yet even after those discussions, I still feel stress free (even if it is only for just a few minutes).
3) Painting/Coloring
This one may not work for those who hate painting and coloring or those who are too impatient to take the time to do these. For me though, it's like my own personal therapy session. Watching paint glide on a canvas not knowing how it'll end up looking is one of the most relaxing and satisfying things I can ever do. Watching an empty page from an adult coloring book be brought to life with vibrant colors seems to make me forget about my problems for a moment.
4) Going For a Walk/Listening to Music
I don't know about you, *cue lyrics to T Swift's 22* but anytime a certain song plays, the stress flows out of my body as the music enters it. For as long as I can remember, no matter if I sang it or just listened to it, music has always been a huge stress reliever for me. Another things that helps me is going for a walk. Put the two together and you will feel stress free! Whether you live on a college campus or live in the middle of town, there are many places one can go for a nice relaxing walk while listening to some awesome tunes (parks, gyms, college campuses, neighborhoods, etc)
5) Read a Book
While this one may not necessarily help me right now, it used to! In middle schools, if i felt stressed out about anything, all I had to do was just pick up my favorite books (which seemed to always be a now-gag-worthy rom-com about vampires and werewolves) and feel myself drift into the fictional world within my book. While this wasn't really a "stress reliever" it definitely made me forget about my problems for awhile. If the book was good enough, I would be sucked into it for hours at a time. Even if you HATE reading, give it a shot. You may surprise yourself!
And lastly, the one that may just be the stress relief I so desperately need, yet also may be the cause of my stress.
6) Shopping
I know for me, being as I am a broke college student and all, I've gotten very good at one certain type of shopping. Window shopping. For those unfamiliar with the term: Window Shopping- the activity of looking at the goods displayed in shop windows, especially without intending to buy anything. A normal shopping trip consists of me walking into stores and touching everything in the hopes that some magic shopping fairy will magically help me to attain said item, or whine as I pass stores with window displays containing things "I have to own or I'll just die" (I wish I could say I've never said that, but then I'd be lying). When I do actually purchase something -and it not be in my dreams- it seems to me to be the greatest gift that God has ever placed upon this earth.
No matter how you choose to relieve stress. you're getting rid of it and that's all that matters.
So, go you!
