The DIY De-Stress Therapy

Stress: Body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat.

And with that definition in place, I guess it becomes almost obvious and very self explanatory why stress continues to form one the biggest concerns among the millennial kids, Us. Why? Well, there is so much, just too much that we want- of ourselves, of others and what not! And then there is this day, when everything you want is going exactly *Opposite* of how you want it to.

So,

Pretty sure  that we can’t have ourselves want Less, any time soon! Also, why settle for less anyways! Hence, the wise thing to do is to learn how to cope up on such days.

This is a very personal take on the issue, but given the logic behind it: I feel it really works. Has always done for me! So sharing it, just to help the uninitiated.

Clean it up!

How to De-Stress Yourself ? – Clean up your Room!

Followed by some Self Pampering: Shave / Get a Haircut if that has been due for a while, Take a Hot Water Shower, Dress up in the most Comfortable clothes, Treat yourself! 

Why it Works ( The Logic ) : As mentioned, very often the origin of stress lies in some or many of our demands / wants being unfulfilled. The feeling of not being able to *DO* something.

When we are Stressed, committing the crime of just sitting down and feeling helpless often adds to it – The nothingness tries to kill our self confidence and makes us feel all the more restless and helpless.

In my case,

A lot of my stress comes from the Confusions that I might be in, which is almost a weekly / fortnightly thing for an Overthinker. And the stress builds up when I am not able to think through those confusions. I too started by doing nothing and thinking that it may help, but it didn’t.

Another thing we often do to de-stress our self is talk to someone we like: Our Parents / Our Partners / Our Friends etc. while it works sometimes, after a point in my life I just felt that its also slightly ( read Very) risky esp. at a time when you aren’t feeling very good already. The person that you may reach out to may not be in a great mood themselves or might turn you down for some work – Honestly, I am not able to take that 😛 Esp. when I am stressed / feeling low.

So instead, I came up with a way of dealing which was much much independent of people and as many other externalities as possible.

*DO SOMETHING THAT YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW IT WORKS*

For me, given the OCD Streak, It is to clean up my room. Somehow the very process of organizing, cleaning up stuff, deciding what goes where, putting things in place : All of these things helped me feel nice, more organised and somehow added a Delta to my self confidence, my ability to *Do*, to *Decide*.

Some of my closest friends would know the infinite number of times when I have mentioned to them how amazingly happy and pumped up I was feeling when I had just finished * Cleaning my Room *. In fact, often to top it up I would change the entire setup of my room, Rotate the Bed , Change where the Table goes, Hang an old artwork somewhere, add a fairy light. *CHANGE HOW THINGS ARE* – A sense of accomplishment is really beautiful and underrated I guess, create some for yourself.

And Now, Once your room is Neat and Nice and something different looking- You can feel good about it and move on to some Self Pampering.

As physically explainable it is, Getting a hair cut ( Much easier a decision for Guys) can actually help you feel a little lighter ! Obviously, if its due – Just go and get it done – I promise it feels nicer, Same about your beard. Were postponing a trim for long now? Just do it. The whole point is actually about do things that you can so easily get done that it makes you feel nice that you did something on a day that wasn’t going great.

Again, take a nice Long Hot Water Shower: Its so sooo De-Stressing! Just let the hot water hit you right in the head and pour down, it just feels so nice and soothing – Esp. all the more after the cleaning that you did. Apart from all this feeling, scientifically too; Hot water bath is supposed to help you feel nicer. So *Yeay* ! And once you are done, just get into your most comfortable clothes giving minimum thought to how it looks! Haven’t you had too much bothering already! So yeah, Just feel comfortable and nice.

Treat yourself, Now this may be very personal ( But what isn’t 😛 ) So yeah! The second last thing to do is Treat Yourself. I usually prefer my self alone at this time. The whole point is, people can be variable – Not what you want on a Bad day. So just decide what you want and go for it. I make a multi-course meal for myself. Starting with a Munchy Snack and Ending with a Nice Ice-Cream. And really everything in between as and as much I like. ( Insert your Health Consciousness – * Swaad Anusar * )

The last one, has to be – Plan what all you want to get done & just Go to sleep early! It goes unsaid that our sleep schedules are usually too stretched and more often than not we are enough tired. So yeah, respect your body’s constraints and go to sleep, But honestly, plan what you will get done tomorrow.

The secret here is that once you sleep with a plan and sleep well, the next day you start with a plan and feel energetic & enthusiastic to get it done. Unlike most days, where many of us spend time figuring out what we have to do for the day.

Its just how all these things are interconnected to each other that make me believe that they work very well.

The Long Story short being : Once you are tired thanks to the cleaning up, comfortable thanks to the nice warm bath and clothes & full thanks to the nice meal you treated your self. A sound sleep is guaranteed.  And with all of that in place, the next morning shall be full of energy and since you planned it well, you can right away channel it to the things you wanted to achieve.

Pretty much the reason I think that it always worked for me!

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If you genuinely were stressed and came here looking for some help, Do try it!

And do share if it helped you feel nicer!

Cheers!