5 Relaxing Activities To Help With Stress

So, what have you been up to? You’ve probably asked or answered that question a lot over the last couple of weeks.

You’ve probably video chatted, texted, and made more phone calls to your friends and loved ones during that time, too, right? This COVID-19 crisis has disrupted our normal routines and is forcing us to figure out a new way to live and to adapt to what’s going on around us. So, what’s a person like you supposed to do now that you’re adding school teacher to your list of daily responsibilities because your kids’ school is closed? For one, you have to figure out a way to keep it all from overwhelming you and stressing you out. We’ve got a few ideas to help you stay above the fray as we head into another week of this thing!

1. Try an online art class. Yes, you can’t get out to an art supply store and it’ll probably be a month before Amazon can deliver stuff like that to you, but if you have pencils — especially colored pencils — you can find some videos that will teach you how to draw. It’s a pretty great stress reliever and it will take your mind off of all the stuff going on around you while at the same time limiting the mindless scrolling through social media feeds or the terrible movies that are on television.
2. Baking night. Doesn’t matter if you have the ingredients to make them from scratch or if you buy five tubes of slice and bakes. Everything is better with a fresh baked good. You can share, like, two of them with your kids and keep the rest for the adults in the house. Or just for yourself. That’s fine, too. The bonus to this tip is that instead of your house smelling like human animals who haven’t bathed regularly, your house will smell like freshly baked treats. Win-win!
3. Get some exercise. Maybe you’ve got some old exercise equipment that you haven’t used since the Obama administration. The first four years. Maybe you’ve got some kettlebells or hand weights. Or maybe you’ve just got a nice piece of carpeted flooring that you can stretch on. Whatever. There are lots of videos you can watch to help you do yoga or maybe a spin class. Or go outside and run some sprints in your back yard. Whatever it is, make sure you stay active.
4. Did we mention schedules? Look, Spring Break is a time for sleeping in and watching TV all day. But with the kids having online school work to do and you needing to take care of business as well, things need to get back to normal as soon as possible. One of the best things you can do in an effort to get as close to normalcy as possible is to write out a schedule that you all stick to. Get up the same time every morning. Go to bed at the same time every night. School work, work work, meals, all of that stuff at the same time every day. You’ll be glad you did once this thing is over.
5. Do whatever makes you feel relaxed. Take a couple of hours and lock the kids and your spouse out of the room and do whatever you like. Watch some tv? Fine. Take a bath? Great. Call your best friend from college? Perfect. Put on a playlist from brain.fm and just be for a bit. You have enough going on to take care of everyone else, it’s not selfish to take some “me” time to take care of your heart and mind as well.
   

Go ahead. Try one or all of these things! You DESERVE a moment to relax.