We all lead busy lives, whether you are still in school or you work. Our world is fast-paced and expects us to keep up with it. As someone who is a perfectionist and Type A personality, I have a million things that I expect myself to do and I hold myself to a very high standard. Since I never want to be the reason that my dreams didn’t come true or I didn’t achieve what I wanted to, I tend to over-work myself and stress myself out.
As I’ve gotten older, I’m beginning to find ways to take time for myself and how I can de-stress from my busy mind. In this post, I share 5 ways that I personally de-stress in my life, and I hope they inspire you to take time for yourself!
1// Buy Fresh Flowers
There is no better feeling than filling your home with beautiful fresh flowers. I’m not big into nature and I’ve never been into gardening, but I love having real plants in my home. There is something peaceful about bringing the outdoors in. I thought it was all in my mind, but apparently, there are a lot of studies about how flowers are great for your mental health. It’s the real flower power, right? (excuse the cheesy joke). According to some studies, having fresh flowers in your home helps you have an overall lower pulse rate, less anxiety, and in general have a more positive psychological state.
Buying fresh flowers for your home doesn’t have to be a huge expense. You can find flowers at all different price points. Usually, flower shops tend to be the most expensive, and if you’re not willing to shell out that kind of cash then there are other options. Trust me, I understand. You can try your local farmer’s market or grocery store for cheaper alternatives.
Bonus Tip: If you live in Switzerland, I buy most of my flowers at Denner. You can buy a bouquet of roses for 5 CHF (roughly $5), and they last well over a week. There isn’t a huge selection so you’ll have to take what is there. But they always have various colors of roses and tulips; when they are in season.
2// Beauty Night
This is probably my favorite and most frequent way to de-stress or lift my spirits. This is something you can do alone or grab a couple of your girlfriends and make a spa night out of it – wine included. I’ll take a hot shower and wrap myself in a robe. For those who do not know, I’m what you call a robe enthusiast and live in robes at home. After that, I’ll put on my favorite movie, choose a face mask or two, and paint my nails. Taking time for yourself is not easy to do, but it is so important. There is something about taking care of yourself that lifts your spirits.
If you’d like to read about my top 3 favorite face masks check out my previous blog post here.
3// Workout
I’ve never been a gym fanatic or enjoyed working out much. There have been periods where I got into a routine and worked out often. There have also been times where I haven’t stepped foot in a gym for over a year. To me, it’s not really about having a strict workout regime in a gym as I think you can also workout from home. It is more about getting moving and finding the best way for you to get those endorphins flowing.
As famously said by Elle Woods, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”
As a dancer, I love to find cardio choreographed dance routines on Youtube and that’s how I workout from home. It keeps me from dreading the workout, but I also really work up a sweat.
Here are a few of the videos I love to workout to Work It, Dessert and Twerk It Like Miley.
4// Sit in the sun
Sitting in the sun or just getting fresh air, in general, feels almost meditative. I truly feel that no one can be unhappy when the sun is shining. We tend to spend a lot of our time indoors for work or for pleasure with all of the technology we have at our fingertips. Getting 30 mins of sunlight or fresh air a day has a lot of health benefits from reducing stress and depression, improving sleep, and overall better health physically and mentally.
For me, it can be as simple as eating my lunch outside rather than in the office or cafeteria. I also sit outside on my balcony at home and watch Youtube videos. It’s a way for me to remove myself from my situation, and change my surroundings. Sometimes you just have to change up your activities.
5// Clean or organize your space
Fun adult stuff we are about to talk about…cleaning. This is not something we always want to do after a long day, but I believe a cluttered home makes for a cluttered mind. Now, I don’t mean clean every inch of your home or tackle that big organizational project you never got to. It can be something as small as doing the dishes sitting in the sink or picking up the pile of clothes that has been growing by the day. I’m guilty of this!
Having a clean home gives you a sense of pride and looking at a mess only further weighs down your mind. It’s add something to the already ever-growing to-do list in your head.
Something I have been doing since I was a kid, is a cleaning game I made up. I call it the 30 things game. With this no matter what, you have to pick up 30 items. This actually gets more done than you would think, but it also gets you into the cleaning mindset. Sometimes, I will just continue cleaning after the 30 things are picked up because why not…you already started the cleaning process.
Do you have any specific things that you do when you’re feeling stressed out?
Nice post and tips! I really want to try the gel mask! Thanks for sharing!
http://violettedaily.com
Author
Hi Violette, thanks so much for commenting! I hope you have a great day!
Sounds good!
Author
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I hope you have a great day 🙂