20 Techniques For Destressing

Family Court Stress

Do you need to de-stress right now or do you have time to create items to make you feel better when stressed? We have some great suggestions for you below.  

Make a sign to remind yourself to stay positive.

You can paint words or put them on a poster board to hang in your room. Sticky notes are a favorite as well. Design a postcard you can send yourself in the mail.

Write and letter not intended to send.        

Love notes, angry rant, or a forgiveness letter to someone you do not want to talk to. Write out your feelings and let them go. Then rip up, throw darts at, or scribble on. You can rip it up and crate something new out of it. Piñata with candy inside you can bat around. Make a box to keep pictures in. This will help get the feelings out and to let go of a situation. The feelings will lose some of their power. This is a great visual and reminder to yourself you can use something bad that happened to create something new. 

Build an altar or type of totem pole for a loved one you miss.

Use photographs, relics, memorable items, or art objects you created in their honor. This can provide comfort in tough times.

Find an item of clothing you can snuggle with. 

Girls do this all the time by wearing a T-Shirt of someone they love. They can sleep in it or wear it to remind them of the person whose shirt it is. 

Visualization of healing or happiness.  

Close your eyes and visualize your body walking into a huge bubble. See all the beautiful colors floating around. You can enjoy that and the feeling of floating in the bubble visiting your friends. You could also put the negative energy into the bubble until it is black, and you can’t see. Then take your finger and pop the bubble. Instantly the darkness and negativity have popped and disappeared.

Creatively write letters to make words.

Practicing writing in fancy letters helps you feel better. Kids like to draw bubble/cloud letters to make words. Adults like to write in calligraphy and can use this skill for invitations etc….

Write a really, really, really, positive saying.      

Ever see the video of the little girl in the bathroom looking at the mirror telling herself all kinds of positive affirmations on how wonderful she is? What a confidence booster! 

Create your own team with yourself.   

Who is going to cheer you on when you try something new or overcome a struggle? YOU! Name your team, set your goal, when you achieve do a victory dance, have a cheer, celebrate with something special.

Make a bucket list.    

What are some of the things you would like to do or experience? Put them on your bucket list and hang it up. When you do one of the things on the list cross it off. Build a wishing tree by uing either a real plant or a tree-like object you create yourself. Write your wishes down on paper and hang them, one by one.

Write a poem about your feelings.   

Need some inspiration, look at Dr. Seuss. Write a negative feeling and then find another word that rimes with that feeling. Put them all together and make a poem out of it. 

Do an acrylic pour of paint.   

Now sure why but watching videos or making a painting like this is so relaxing. Maybe it is the way the paint slowly moves and changes shapes, but it works. 

Listen to a natural noise in nature.                                                                                             

There are recordings of streams flowing, the wind blowing in a meadow, and noises in the forest. People in the inner city really like to listen to these recordings to relax. 

Construct a crazy holiday calendar.      

Did you know there are some crazy holidays out there! You may want to know some of these holidays so you can make a calendar of what each day means. You can pass people and say happy weather day, rainbow day, or something silly. This is also a good ice breaker to starting a conversation with others. 

Change your name and the voice on your cell phone.    

Yes, you can have your Siri or Google call you a certain name like princess of the butterflies, fisher mon, hippie dude, sunshine girl. You can have a man’s voice or a woman’s voice and they can talk in a different language. You can even have the phone set to tell you the weather and play music after saying “good morning” to your phone.

Make a tie-dye shirt.                                                   

Got a shirt you don’t like? Who needs one more thing they don’t like in their life? A white or light-colored shirt can be dyed, and a black shirt can be bleached. Use rubber bands to make different shapes etc. 

Create a positive note jar. 

Find positive sayings and write on a piece of paper and put in a jar. When feeling down, frustrated, or annoyed you can draw a piece of paper with a joke, inspirational quote, or a funny memory you placed in the jar. 

Make stress balls to use when you need them.                                                                   

Balloons filled with water beads, flower, or rice are some great ways to make stress balls. Make sure to use two balloons in case one pops you have the other one to make sure they don’t explode and go everywhere. 

Journal your feelings and use code words only you know.                                                             

People like to read another's private writings, but if they don’t know your code words. they will not understand what is written in your journal. A boy you like could be “ick boy” just the opposite of what you think. Once at a job, these women were being mean to a co-worker. We gave each one of them a name of a character in a show. We could talk about them and if someone overheard parts of our conversation or read our open chat, they would not know what we were talking about.

Listen to comedy while creating some of these projects. 

You can download I Heart Radio and listen to the Comedy channel. You can watch funny YouTube videos. How about writing your own jokes? Just thinking about funny things and make you feel so much better. Take your situation and turn it into a scary movie where you are the person who saves the world. 

Make your own YouTube channel with positive music.                                                           

Look up songs with the word joy and happy in them and you will be amazed. Find songs that lift your spirits and make you feel happy. So you can go to your channel when feeling down and listen to what makes you feel better.