When you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, everybody around you will say just relax. They’ll tell you just to close your eyes and not think for a while, but honestly, that’s not an easy thing to do. Being told to just relax isn’t helpful. Being told that you just need to chill out and slow down is not helpful. What is helpful is people realizing the cause of your stress and doing what they can to alleviate that stress. The last thing that you need is more people adding to your issues.
Some people turn to activities that feel relaxing but leave them feeling more depleted. Other people doom scroll on social media in the hopes that TikTok is somehow going to tell them what to do with their lives. You need to be able to unwind and truly relax on a daily basis so that you can finally figure out how you’re going to stop feeling so overwhelmed. So with that in mind, we’ve put together a massive list of ways that you can truly unwind and relax for a change.
- Figure out what relaxation means for you. What relaxes one person is not going to relax the next, so you have to consider what relaxation will mean for you and go with that.Relaxation is such an individual thing, so it’s OK if even the tips on this list don’t work for you. Perhaps your version of relaxation is cracking open a crossword book and doing as many puzzles as your brain can handle. It doesn’t sound very relaxing to other people because a crossword is something you have to concentrate on and think about. Often people consider relaxation being something you don’t have to think about or consider. However, if a crossword puzzle is going to relax you, then getting into as many books as you can is a great idea.
- Learn to breathe. You were born taking a breath, so realistically breathing is a reflex and it’s going to help to keep you alive. But if you’ve ever considered what it feels like to take a true deep breath right in and let it go slowly, you’ll know what it’s like to feel that oxygen flooding your black brain and clearing your thinking. Breathing techniques can help you to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. This allows you to rest, relax and digest. The sympathetic nervous system is what controls your fight or flight stress response. If you are triggering your sympathetic nervous system more than your parasympathetic nervous system, you need to learn to stop panting and start breathing deeply. When we are stressed, we tend to hold our breath, but you don’t have to do that anymore.
- Unclench your jaw. Grinding your teeth on the commute because of the traffic at work because of your boss, and in the evening because of the kids is not going to help you to relax. It’s going to lead to earache, headaches and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Even if you don’t grind your teeth and you don’t have a TMJ disorder, it’s very common to clench your jaw together as a response to the stress in your life. This can build up to create a lot of tension, so you need to start with recognizing what your attention triggers are and your responses are and just unclench.
- Write A to do list. It doesn’t sound like a particularly relaxing activity, but a to do list can be quite soothing for you if your mind is busy. Pulling all of the thoughts out of your mind one by one and getting them down on paper is a great way to relax. It’s hard to know what to do or where to start if your To Do List is out of control. If you are juggling a lot of things at once, taking a few minutes at the beginning of your day to write down your list of tasks is satisfying, because then you can tick them off 1 by 1. This can help you to feel more in control of your life and what you’re doing, and it allows you to prioritize what’s most important. Always be realistic about how much you can truly get done and don’t overload yourself because all that’s going to do is cause more stress.
- Celebrate yourself. A great way to relax is to celebrate yourself for each of the triumphs of the day. So if you’ve written yourself a to-do list and you’re able to tick every single thing off 1 by 1, celebrate each time. You’re going to feel more accomplished, and the more accomplished you feel, the more you can motivate yourself to do the next tour on the list. A ‘ta-da’ list is as good as a to-do list, trust us on that one! It’s not easy to motivate yourself to get things done, especially if you’re not feeling relaxed, but once you start to get into the cycle of celebrating yourself, you’re going to feel so much better for it.
- Get outside. If you’ve been stuck in an office or in your Home Office all day long working, then you need to get outside and breathe in the fresh air. Spending time outdoors and in nature has been proven time and again to improve mental health. Gentle exercise and getting your heart rate up just slightly can also help you to relax because those hormones will flood your body and help you to do it. You want to mitigate the symptoms of depression and anxiety, and you want to make sure that you can spend time in an environment that makes you feel good.
- Start focusing on the present. If you’re busy panicking about trauma from the past and panicking about how you see your future going, then it’s time to slow your roll and start thinking about what’s happening in your present day. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing, and then pay close attention to the details of physical movement and your physical environment. With mindfulness meditation practices and breathing exercises, you’ll be able to ground yourself properly in the here and now to relax physically and psychologically. Focusing on the present can also help to bring you back to yourself, especially if you’re feeling a little out of it these days.
- Learn to take a nap. Getting a decent sleep is really important if you’re hoping to relax. It’s a good way to keep your stress managed and if you’re not able to sleep very well at night time then you might need to learn to take a nap during the day. Always set a catnap alarm around 20 minutes so that you can get some stage two sleep. This enhances your mood and boosts your alertness and allows you to feel like you’re somewhat rested.
- Create a bedtime ritual. A great way to relax is to make sure that you have a ritual in place to make bedtime feel like it’s under control. A simple ritual from starting your skin care to writing in your journal can help you to unwind, which will help you to sleep better. It’s very easy for the work day to blend into the evening, but you don’t have to allow it.
Taking up a hobby, going for a walk, and figuring out how to end your day on a high note is all going to help you to unwind and truly relax. Make today the day that you do that.