Tricks to cope with stress and enjoy your hobby

Hello! Probably everyone has heard that hobbies help to cope with stress. Doing what we love, we can relax and gain strength, take time for ourselves. However, in order for leisure to be beneficial, you need to be able to relax correctly.

 

If you are nervous, mentally returning to your problems and daily chores, you do not relax, but rather increase stress. Our brains are not designed for multitasking. Evolutionarily, we are adapted to respond quickly to environmental signals and live in the present, which is why regular disturbing thoughts about the past and future make us so tired. If on the way home from work you endlessly jump over thoughts about the events of the working day, about the upcoming tasks, about the fact that the house has run out of milk and that you need to wash the curtains next week, it's time to change something. Such a jump of thoughts and experiencing stress, even when nothing threatens you, not only exhaust a person mentally, they undermine their physical health and shorten their life.

 

One of the main secrets of a good, uplifting rest and a happy, peaceful life is mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness is not at all about many hours of meditation sitting in an uncomfortable position in the mountains of Tibet or on the banks of the Ganges. It is enough to be truly present in the moment, to be able to turn off the autopilot and focus your thoughts on what you are doing at that moment. In this case, the hobby will bring pleasure and benefit, relaxation for the mind and body.

If you want to practice mindfulness, try the following tips.

 

Concentrate on your activities and how they feel. For example, if you are doing psp tagging, do it as if you were seeing psp tube for the first time. Take a look at the picture - what colors is it, what associations and emotions does it evoke in you? What message would you like to convey with a psp tag with it? What tools do you want to use? What background is perfect for it?

Such a strategy can be used not only by doing a hobby, but also by doing physical exercises, eating or drinking, reading books.

 

Turn off autopilot mode and resist extraneous thoughts. Try to track the moment when you start thinking not about the current activity, but about other things. Stop thinking about the upcoming renovation or your aunt's birthday, for which you still haven't bought a gift. Tell yourself that nothing bad will happen if you think about it later. Now you deserve to completely immerse yourself in your hobby and spend time only on yourself. Then, with a little effort, bring your attention back to the here and now.

 

If you are nervous or angry or sad, try to be aware of this emotion, but do not succumb to it. Let it surround you like the sea, but not cover you with a wave. Look at it from the side. Don't give it a moral assessment, just accept it existence as a fact. Don't beat yourself up for feeling this way, because it's not your fault, and blaming yourself will only make things worse. Learning to contemplate your emotions without being influenced by them is learning to separate your feelings from yourself and control them. It is quite difficult, but in time it will work out.

 

Focus on the sensations in your body. Are you comfortable sitting? Are the clothes you are wearing now comfortable? Are you warm or cold? Are you thirsty? Maybe you should make yourself a cup of tea? Try to provide yourself with the most comfortable environment and listen carefully to yourself. The human brain cannot simultaneously focus on somatic sensations and thinking about the future. 

 

Use this trick to relieve stress. Hope they help! What tricks do you use to relax? Tell us in the comments!