A while back I wrote about how journaling has really improved my mental health. That said, there are other things I do, to distract myself from the “rough spots” in life, as I feel sometimes distraction is better than reflection (as long as it’s in small doses, or in rotation). Therefore, I figured I might as well share said distractions here…
Before getting to the actual list itself, however, I’d like to take a moment to also highlight that, the more I reflect on my own past, the more I realize just how short-sighted and mean and spoiled I really was (and still somewhat am). Thankfully, the distractions I listed out below have helped to me learn to live with all of my guilt…
Anyway, here we go:
Learning new things
I’m trying to do this a lot more now. Listening to other genres of music that I’m not used to, watching more interviews of people I respect to try to gain new perspectives, and so on.
Tea (and sometimes coffee)
This may sound silly at first, but at least for me, simply the act of preparing tea and then enjoying it slowly already helps to make my day feel much more meaningful than it would otherwise (just gotta remember to take care of your teeth enough, and get used to peeing more). Apparently, the Japanese have a saying: “Take life one cup of tea at a time.” The phrase itself is really just a metaphor for focusing on the present (instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future), but I kinda live by it in a more literal sense too. In fact, I have a specific ritual where I drink black tea and/or coffee in the morning, green tea around noon, fruit-based tea in the evening, and chamomile and/or sleepy-time tea at night. Only one cup of each, of course! If you’re not a tea person, you just need to find whatever your equivalent is. For example, Vin Diesel’s character in the Fast & Furious films says he lives life “one quarter-mile at a time.” I suppose you could also drink cold or room temperature liquid slowly, to focus on the present, but it’s much easier with hot drinks. Also, sometimes I just do hot water with honey, if I don’t have any tea around. Either way, this new tea routine has helped me to drink more water, by default, so that’s good too, at least. The best part is that different drinks have different properties (caffeine energizes you, chamomile relaxes you, etc.).
“Easy” watching
As one might expect, this is just simply the act of watching TV or videos that don’t require too much attention or investment. Your favorite game show, your favorite cooking show, your favorite YouTuber, your favorite movie series or TV show that you continue to marathon over and over cause it’s comforting for one reason or another… You get the idea… I find that game shows in particular help me a lot cause they’re on TV here all the time, so it gives me a “schedule,” of sorts. In fact, one of the reasons why I don’t like streaming as much as everyone else is cause having unlimited options overwhelms me, and I like that regular TV basically “chooses things for you.” I think I also like game shows in particular cause I can “play along,” and with competitive cooking shows, I can try to guess who’s gonna win. I know there’s a common belief that watching too much TV is bad, but I honestly think this is an outdated mindset, especially when referring to the aforementioned “interactive” shows that keep your brain active, to an extent. Sometimes I even try “recreating” certain game shows in my head (like come up with the puzzles and then pretend like I’m trying to solve them). Lately I’ve actually been watching Food Network on mute, as simply seeing the food being cooked is relaxing enough. EDIT: Youtube Shorts are also sometimes fun, I must admit.
Message Boards
As geeky as it may be, I think stuff like Reddit and Discord can be a nice form of self-expression, when used appropriately.
Rationalizations
As one would expect, this is simply the act of trying to find different ways to rationalize all the bad things that might happen to you, like “It sucks that this happened, but at least I learned (insert epiphany here) from it.” I even started an ongoing list of these on my phone, in fact, and sometimes I also turn certain epiphanies into poems.
Re-reading old notes
I have about a paragraph worth of notes on my phone that I re-read at least once a day, because they’re notes that are designed to counter-attack my most frequent stress triggers. EDIT: The “rationalizations” thing above has kinda replaced this now, actually.
Making lists
Meta, I know! But seriously, I’ve found over the years that making lists can be pretty relaxing for me, and I’ve heard others say the same. Doesn’t have to be a specific topic, either. While I lean towards pop culture related stuff, I can make lists of pretty much anything. You don’t need to look further than my list repository to see that. In fact, I recently made a food list, of all things! Making lists (especially to-do lists) is also a good way to motivate yourself to try new stuff.
Little games
By “little” I mean stuff like Tetris, Solitaire, Snake, Wordle, etc. Basically just easy stuff that’s universally accepted as “low-risk.” Studies show that these kinds of games can be quite therapeutic, as a matter of fact! Make no mistake, though: If you’re prone to “gamer rage,” you might still get that even from these kinds of games, at least to a certain extent… Oh yeah, and for solitaire in particular, I like to alternate between easy mode and hard.
Mind games
What I mean by this is little games that you play entirely in your head. My favorite example of this is “track-by-tracks” (a term coined by a YouTuber I follow called Almost Human). This is where you take two different albums that have the same number of tracks and do “song vs. song” for Track 1, Track 2, and so on, and then add up all the points in the end to see which album wins. Basically any other variation of comparing one thing to another applies here too.
Muscle relaxation through “mentalizing”
This is actually a technique that’s mainly used by the military, to help them fall asleep faster/ in uncomfortable conditions, but I find that it can also help with simply de-stressing during the day too. Basically, you start by picking a spot on your body (usually somewhere on your face like your nose or the inside of your mouth, but starting from your fingers or toes works too). Then you think about all the different little muscle fibers in that particular area, and imagine those fibers “loosening up.” Then, continue that process through different parts of your body, until you fall asleep (or feel relaxed, especially around noisy people). This is basically an advanced form of “counting sheep.”
Sensory exercises
Similar to the above, I think it’s important sometimes to just focus on your breathing, as well as other sensory details (smell, touch, sound, etc.). Another advantage of drinking hot drinks is that you can feel the heat in your hands, actually. The “extreme” sense of touch there really helps me to focus on the present, and having a microwave around helps me to keep the tea hot.
“Survival mode”
This is simply the act of reminding yourself that the most important thing in life is simply just to survive in the present moment. Humans need three things to survive: Food, water, and shelter. Constantly remind yourself that you have those things, and if you don’t, figure out what you need to do to get them. If it helps, pretend your life is a livestream, or reality show of some kind, and constantly narrate to yourself in your head as you do the things you need to for survival. Even sleep is technically something we need to survive, so I find that narrating to myself “I’m going to sleep now cause I need to” in my head also helps (in addition to the muscle technique mentioned above). Funny side note: One of my favorite movies of all time is Wall-E, and one of the key themes of that movie is “life should be about living, not just surviving.” What I’m saying here kinda goes against that, but sometimes, it is what it is…
Nature
Even just opening the window blinds and looking at the clouds can be therapeutic!
Looking for patterns
I saved this one for the near end cause it’s not really something I do anymore, but felt it was worth noting anyways. This task just simply entails looking for patterns all around you. Count how many pens happen to be on the table in front of you right now. Focus on the seams on the blanket on your bed. Look out the window and see how many cars (or cars of a particular color) pass by over the next minute or so. Stuff like that. Again, I eventually burnt out on this one, but for at least a little bit of time, it helped me a lot.
Multitasking
This basically just means doing one or more of the things above. In fact, just the other day I was listening to a live stream while playing solitaire and occasionally looking over at my TV on mute. This sorta thing may be frowned upon by some, but personally, if multitasking doesn’t burn you out, I think there’s nothing wrong with it.
Nothing (yes, really)
Sometimes, just doing absolutely nothing is important for clearing the mind!
…Well, thank you for indulging me once again!
Peace!
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