(Newswire.net — March 31, 2017) — The amount of stress you experience tends to be higher during the day because of the various responsibilities you have to fulfil, either at work or any other similar professional environment. It is important to make sure that you do not add to this stress when you return home in the evening; as a result, here are a few stress-free or stress-reducing activities that you can partake in during your evenings.
Singing
It may be common knowledge that listening to soothing music can relax you by lowering your heart rate and blood pressure. That being said, singing can also be a great stress reduction technique. This is because, similar to shouting in a pillow, belting out a song helps relieve your tension. By focusing on the music, you distract yourself from the worries of your day, which consequentially reduces the stress that you may have gathered up to that point. Therefore, if you love music and don’t mind the idea of rocking out to your favourite songs, karaoke may be the activity for you. Spend the night with your friends at a karaoke bar and free yourself of your worries for a few hours by engaging in various great, and not so great, re-enactments of the most popular tunes.
Online Gaming
On the one hand, playing simple, yet fun, games is a good way of distracting yourself by engaging in light-hearted entertainment. Games such as online slots are simple enough to grasp the premise of quickly, but still fun enough to enjoy for a long period of time. As comparison site Bonus.ca states, many operators offer free spins when players make a deposit. On the other hand, games that involve more strategic thinking can also be recommendable stress relievers. Strategic games help people develop the mental skills to manage stress. RPGs like World of Warcraft, or the more recent favourite The Witcher 3, require the gamer to solve side-quests and missions in order to progress through the game, thereby effectively training your mind to learn how to work through similar frustrations in real life.
Baking
It is often said that food is consumed most often in periods of stress. Therefore, it only makes sense that the act of making food should consist of similar stress-relieving attributes. What makes baking a great stress-reducing activity is that it facilitates creative expression. Engaging in creative activities has been found to be positively correlated to life satisfaction. When you’re baking, you’re not as confined to following the strict guidelines of a regular recipe, and the cakes and cookies you make can be designed to suit your own creative tastes. In addition, baking is meditative, which means that it involves focusing your attention on a specific task, thereby forcing you to forget the worries that may have been causing you stress.
Overall, it is important to remember to not let the worries of your day plague you at night. It is difficult to immediately discard thoughts of your problems as soon as you step into your home, but hopefully, by engaging in a stress-reducing activity, you can enjoy your evenings more.