9 Things That Can Make You Feel Rested, Calm, and Satisfied

Sometimes it might feel like we’re under the pressure of stress, but as it turns out, not all of it is bad for you — there’s a type of stress that’s actually good for our health. It’s not associated with fear or threats and appears when we are excited, like before a first date or when we’re on a rollercoaster ride. But no matter if it’s good or not, oftentimes, we just wish to unwind, and doing that can be a little tricky.

We at Bright Side are happy to share some tips that can help you feel rested easily.

1. Making (or destroying) soap

Skin is our largest organ, and we should be conscious of what we’re putting on it, as some personal care products contain various harmful ingredients. This is why using homemade soap is a good idea — this way you know exactly what it is made of. As a bonus, DIYing can be a very fun and relaxing process that includes working with different oils, fragrances, and colorants, which is very soothing.

And if the process of creating soap is too much of a hassle, try destroying it instead. Cutting soap is quite a popular genre in ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response), and for good reason — there’s a great variety of types of soaps and it provides both auditory and visual stimulation, and if you do it in real life and not just watch others cut soap, you also use your other sense, like smell and touch.

2. Listening to sad songs

It sounds counterproductive, we know. However, research shows that listening to sad music helps with imagination, emotion regulation, and empathy. It evoked nostalgia in the participants and even pleasure instead of negative emotions as one might assume. So maybe the common desire to listen to sad songs when you’re already sad isn’t that crazy after all.

3. Rule of thumb

Believe it or not, one of your fingers has calming superpowers, and it’s your thumb. Doctors suggest that blowing on your thumb can calm the heart rate and deepen your breathing. And there’s more: tapping on this finger (applying pressure to the base of the thumbnail) also helps to relieve anxiety. So, as you can see, we always have an anti-stress solution at hand, quite literally.

4. Getting dirty

Many people find working in the garden or taking care of their plants relaxing. It has to do with the sunlight you get and the fact that you’re connecting with nature and creating something beautiful. In addition to those reasons, a study found one more: there’s a type of friendly bacteria that live in soil that makes our brain produce serotonin and has other positive effects on our bodies.

5. Playing with Play-Doh, modeling clay, or slime

These are usually seen as made for children, but there’s nothing stopping adults from enjoying these nice-to-the-touch things for stress relief. Slime therapy, for example, affects the nervous system by sending positive messages (this simply means that it feels good). Also, it can hardly become boring: there are countless variations in shape, colors, texture, and so on.

6. Standing up tall

Good posture is important in many health aspects, including feeling calm and relaxed as it helps with blood circulation and oxygen levels. Standing straight can improve your mood in the same way smiling does. There’s another side to it as well: body language. So-called “power posing,” or standing in a posture of confidence, actually makes you feel more confident, according to research.

7. Clenching and unclenching your right fist a few times

When we are stressed out, the right part of the brain is activated, as its function is to control emotions. To balance things out, we need to make the left brain work (it is connected to verbal functions and logic). Since the right part of our body is more in contact with the left part of the brain, clenching and unclenching the right fist should do the trick.

8. Lying on the floor and rolling around on a tennis ball.

Both ancient medicine techniques and modern scientific research suggest that the pressure points on our feet can affect different parts of our body, including helping with anxiety and stress. To massage them effectively, you can use something like a foam roller or, if you don’t have one, a tennis ball works as well.

9. Counting your change

Counting is a tried and true way to get rid of anxiety: it allows your brain to focus on something. Bringing coins into this adds another aspect to it — touching little metal objects and also seeing them in front of you instead of just imagining numbers can make the technique more effective. Who knows, maybe it also satisfies our inner Scrooge McDuck.

Do you feel stressed out often? What helps you relax and forget the worries of the day?