The holiday season is ramping up, which also means that tests, projects and cumulative exams are coming at you full speed. Fight the anxiety with these seven cheap and easy ways to de-stress.
Paint a wine bottle
Pinterest is so much fun to try and bring ideas to life. Even if you aren't artistic, you can paint whatever you want, meaning you can make it as ugly or cute as you really want. Plus you have to get an empty wine bottle, so the fun is along the whole process here.
Color in a coloring book
Don't want to go out and buy an actual coloring book? Well, there's an app for that. Recolor is a great app that colors in the lines for you, so you don't even have to worry about that. If you want old-fashioned coloring, then there are tons of adult coloring books for you to peruse. It's a distraction from whatever real-life issues are taking up your life in a fun, healthy way.
Listen to white noise
It sounds really weird, but if you're stressed, then focusing on just the sound of the white noise can take all of your worries away and help you drift off to sleep. If you're an insomniac like me, then this also works wonders on helping you sleep. There are Spotify playlists for these, and you can find which noises work best for you! Or, you can get a white noise machine if you want to pay a little bit of cash. If you want to save money then you can use a device (i.e. Alexa, Google Home, etc) to play the white noise as well!
Watch your favorite TV show
This one might seem simple, but it can do a lot to take your mind off whatever stressors are bothering you right now. So peruse that Netflix, Hulu, HBOgo, Showtime account — whatever you mooch off your parents', friend's or ex's (do people really still use their ex's Netflix?) streaming service, snuggle up in bed and watch some TV.
Do yoga!
With this one, people are usually super for it or way against it. I get it, I fall over nothing every day and look like a fool. But that doesn't mean that you can't do yoga! Do the easy poses then! It's like a more expansive breathing exercise. Breathing with anxiety is incredibly important, and stretching your body out makes you feel refreshed. Go crazy with the yoga if you want to, or keep it simple.
Grounding
Honestly, I use this technique the most out of anything. There are TONS of different grounding techniques, but my favorite is to ground me to events that are happening in the present, as most of my anxieties deal with the past. For this, you can look at your phone and repeat what the date is out loud (I promise out loud helps more), look at some conversation you just had with a friend about something that happened recently, look at your calendar and keep going over the things that you have to do that day, in the coming week, anything. If you want to, you can call someone you trust and have them describe their day for you so that you can focus on something else rather than your own life and distract yourself that way. Sometimes hyperfocusing on something that you are wearing helps too.
Self-care
Have a self-care night either by yourself or with others, it's up to you and what makes you feel most comfortable. Give yourself a full facial, do the whole shebang — cleanser, toner, face mask, serums, moisturizers — however much or however little as you want. Take that long shower with the burning hot water
If you need something to help calm you down now, think about these, because believe me they help wonders and just become second nature when you need them.
