Bestie, you’re stressed. I get it. But did you know that stress can affect your body and mind in so many different ways? It can give you headaches, upset stomach, lack of motivation and energy, and so much more. We’re so close to the finish line, we can’t give up now! That’s why I found some healthy ways to destress! (We are not going to be drinking our problems away). These are ways that I’ve managed to cope with stress from being a student full time, having 2 jobs, extracurriculars, and just dealing with other people’s problems.
Meditating I always thought that meditating was just sitting on the ground with your legs crossed and humming and refused to do that. But I’ve learned that it’s so much more than that. I downloaded an app called “Balance” that helps with meditating for a couple of minutes a day. What I love about the app is that there is a large variety of types of meditation that you can do. Some of the categories are anxiety, frustration, relaxation, breaking habits, procrastination, and even an SOS one. They even have plans, which are a number of different meditations put into a specific order and are personalized to you. Since I have literally never meditated like this before, I’m doing the foundations plan just to learn and get the hang of it.
My favorite thing about my meditations are that they help me calm down and listen to my body. I’m constantly running around, doing a million tasks, that I never take the time to just be one with my body. As I’m writing this, I actually have a ton of shoulder and back pain from stress and am going to meditate for a little bit. As an asthmatic, I adore breath focus. It’s an easy start to meditation. You focus on your breath and clear your mind. I feel like I’m never genuinely breathing or that my body isn’t getting enough oxygen, since I seriously can’t breathe. But when I’m laying or sitting down with my eyes closed, just focusing on breathing, I know that my lungs are finally getting filled with that good old oxygen.
Gamify Your Life
Walkr This might just seem like I’m trying to push a bunch of apps but we’re a generation ALWAYS on our phones, we might as well use our devices to help us destress too. Aside from school and work, I feel like I personally stress myself out. I am extremely unhappy with my body and how much I actually move around. So I have a walking app called Walkr that helps track my steps and movement. You’re able to collect energy from your steps and use that to create planets in your own little solar system. It’s a very cool app that has a ton of features and you can add friends and join little missions. I discovered the app years ago but decided to redownload it at the beginning of the year.
Fortune City Unfortunately, I struggle with money for multiple reasons. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t try to make it better for me. Fortune City is an app where you log your purchases or income you receive and each log will build a building in your city. You can merge buildings together to make a bigger and better one. Walkr and Fortune City are both created by the same company, FourDesire, and they have a couple more apps that help track your healthy habits. Since Fortune City will only build buildings for the first 5 purchases of the day, I limit how many times I swipe my card. I also don’t want the little characters in the game judging me for spending almost $20 at the coffee shop in one day.
Brain Games An opportunity to play games on my phone while also getting smarter at the same time? I like to play these games right before I go to bed. They kind of tire my brain out and distract me from overthinking late at night. I also go to bed knowing that I’m smarter (and funnier and prettier and sexier) than the day before. There are lots of brain game apps that you can find. The two that I’ve always used since high school are Elevate and Lumosity. I think getting smarter helps destress since I’m not feeling ugly AND dumb.
Spend Time With Your Favorite Person Everyone has that one person that they hold near and dear to their heart, whether it be your sibling, partner, or best friend. Reach out to them and hang out with them. Find some time during the weekend to just sit and chat, even if it’s for an hour a week. Spending time with someone that you love will help boost oxytocin, the hormone that helps with relieving stress and anxiety.
And if you’re spending time with a partner (or just a friend), spend time with them in bed if you know what I mean. Sex is a great way to destress since your body releases endorphins and oxytocin, two feel-good hormones. And if you don’t have someone to do it with, you have the hottest person in your life with you at all times, yourself. Self-love will also help with releasing those same feel-good hormones. Hey, we all deserve to feel good!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember that you’re almost there! You’ve worked so hard and your loved ones are so proud of you :) I’m proud of you, bestie!