Where do you turn to when you’re in dire need for some stress-relief? When the usual methods are not available, the digital world will be there to help. Even though being online can cause you more stress, the Internet abounds with many stress-relief tools. Here are some you might find useful for keeping your stress levels in check.
- Watch Cat Videos
If you’re not a cat person, you can watch puppy videos instead. But the important thing to remember is that watching cute animals will reduce your stress and make you feel better. You can replace cats and dogs with other animals, like baby chicks, ducklings, pandas, or any other animal that looks cute and cuddly and makes you feel good.
- Enjoy Some ASMR
ASMR is not for everyone. It’s short for autonomous sensory meridian response, and it refers to a pleasant tingling sensation that’s triggered by listening to certain sounds. There are plenty of videos online that trigger this effect in some people. If you’re not susceptible to it, however, you’re likely to just find these videos creepy.
- Tend to an Online Zen Garden
Zen gardens are a form of minimalist gardens that often contain little except some sand and a couple of stones. But they can relieve stress because they can significantly reduce visual clutter, which is a possible cause of stress. And you can create these Zen gardens online.
- Vent (Without Being a Jerk)
If you see something online that causes you stress, it might help you to react to it. If it’s an article or a video, you can do so by leaving comments. Comment sections are often nasty places where people write terrible things, so you shouldn’t really add to that. But if you keep your comments thoughtful and reasonably polite, you should comment away. Just be careful not to get drawn in a conversation you don’t want to be a part of.
- Listen to the Sounds of Nature
You’ll find many sound generators online that can help you manage your stress. The sounds of waves crashing, rainfall, or birdsong can drain your stress, leaving you more relaxed. If your stress is making it hard for you to focus, these sound generators will help with that too.
- Online Window Shopping
Do you like window shopping, but can’t do it while at work? Spending a couple of minutes to research your future purchases can give you the pleasant feeling of window shopping from the comfort of your chair. It’s as simple as going to an online store and looking at the products you’d like to buy. The added benefit is that you’ll be able to find deals and compare prices in the process, so you’ll actually be reducing stress and saving money at the same time.
- Play Online Games
Playing games can be a powerful form of stress-relief. It gets even better if you can find online the games you used to play while you were a kid, as the nostalgia effect often provides comfort. You’ll find no lack of websites that offer you online games for free, and most of them will have a large selection for you to choose from.
- Stress Relief Apps
There’s an app for everything these days, stress relief included. If you like to practice mindfulness and meditation for stress-relief, there are hundreds of apps for that. If you want to be more positive, there are apps that will help you. If you need help with managing your anxiety, you guessed it, apps will be there to lend a hand. You can even find coloring apps that serve as a virtual coloring book.
- Satisfy Your Curiosity
Finally, you can just browse the web to find things you’re interested in and take your mind off the stressors around you. Whether it’s music, movie trailers, TV show episode recaps, you’ll find plenty of content online that will grab your attention and help you forget, at least for a moment, that you’re under stress.