These days can be stressful, whether it’s because of school, work, or even family. But that doesn’t mean you have to be stressed all the time. You should always make time to take care of yourself and your health! I’m hoping these 5 easy ways to destress will be of help in some way for whoever chooses to read this. 

1 – Journaling 

Journaling may sound boring, but once you get into the habit of writing out your day or how your day was, it can help you become more organized and feel more secure with how you are doing. Journaling is also a great way to express yourself emotionally, especially if you have trouble talking to other people about your problems or emotions. VeryWellMind shows us a couple of ways to journal if you’re not familiar with it, such as the “Gratitude Journal,” where you write down 3+ things in the everyday life you’re grateful for. Two other methods of journaling are “Emotional Release” and “Bullet Journal.” The emotional release journal is focused on just writing about your emotions and mental health and the bullet journal’s main goal is to focus on your everyday life and how you want to plan it out. 

2 – Meditation 

Meditating is one of the best ways to clear your mind and find some peace within yourself. The more you practice it, the better you get and the more positive effect it can have on your mind and even body. Meditating for just 5 minutes a day can help you destress, have less anxiety and depression, as well as overcome addiction, and build a better connection with others. And that’s only if you meditate for 5 minutes a day. Once you increase the time you meditate, the better the effects will be. 

3 – Change Your Environment

Going for a walk, fixing up your plants, going to the store for a little shopping spree, or just watching your favorite series or anime is a great way to change your environment to get you away from wherever the stress is coming from. Distracting yourself by changing the environment is also good because you can essentially be a bit more active, especially if you’re just plopped on bed stressing out. Going for a walk is one of the best ways to destress by getting some fresh air, freeing up your thoughts, and being active.

4 – Make Something

Whether it be a cake, a painting, or even a flower arrangement, being creative and letting those juices flow will make you have fun and feel happy and good! If you don’t have any of those things at hand, some more simple and easy things to do could be drawing, making outfits, mess around with makeup, or you could even reorganize your room. Finding a creative outlet may sometimes sound hard, but if you look around, I’m sure you’ll find something to make or fix up!

5 – Read A Book 

I find reading a book, especially poetry books, very helpful with calming me down as well as distracting my mind from whatever is causing me stress. Books are a great way to entertain yourself, especially if you find a book that interests you and won’t bore you to death. It also keeps the mind occupied with something other than whatever it’s stressing about. Reading in general also has some great benefits, like expanding vocabularies, increasing brain connectivity, and heightening attention spans. 

The next time you find yourself stressed and overwhelmed, remember that there are many fun and easy ways to destress yourself, such as journaling, meditating, being more active, finding a creative outlet, or even just reading a book.