6 Satisfying Tasks To Melt Away Stress & Feel Relaxed
Stress attacks us in many forms. You experience physical stress from your actions; perhaps you do a very laborious job, or maybe you’re a parent who’s constantly on their feet. Stress also comes in a mental form – different things around you make you feel mentally stressed, which ties into anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.
Consistently high stress levels are no joke. The more stress you experience, the more detrimental it will be to your overall health. What can be done to prevent stress from building up? Here are six oddly satisfying tasks that do a fantastic job of melting your stress away. They’ll take you away from life’s problems and help you feel more relaxed as you enjoy the satisfying nature of each task.
Decluttering your home
Decluttering benefits you in multiple ways. It’s a highly satisfying task as you get to see messy spaces become clean. Before and after photos are a must, especially in the absurdly cluttered areas. The act of cleaning parts of your home and freeing up space is mentally stimulating. You have a more positive outlook because your home is tidier and it’s almost a symbolic gesture for what happens in your mind.
As you declutter your interiors, you declutter your mind! The negative thoughts and emotions get swept aside as you’re caught up in this task. It makes you feel so much better and more relaxed – especially as you now have a cosy and comfortable place to relax in.
Pressure washing something
You need to buy a pressure washer if you deal with a lot of stress. Pressure washing is one of life’s most satisfyingly relaxing tasks. Some people will watch videos of other people pressure washing things just to feel a bit more relaxed and chilled out. There’s something so gratifying about watching a rapid jet of pressurised water blast away stubborn stains. The way you can move the jet across something and instantly see the cleanliness underneath is amazing.
You’re bound to have something in and around your home that needs to be pressure washed. Maybe the pavement outside your home could do with a spruce up, or perhaps the siding to your home itself needs cleaning. You could even pressure wash a fence or garage wall. Find something to use this gadget on and feel the relaxing satisfaction of blasting the dirt away.
Tidying the garden
Decluttering your home is satisfying and mentally rewarding, but so is decluttering your garden! Get outside and give your garden space a nice clean. You’ll come across many satisfying tasks to embark on in your garden area – starting with leaf removal! Find the best cordless leaf blower and use it to blow away loose leaves and evacuate debris from the garden. It’s weirdly satisfying to see your green spaces revealed under a bed of leaves. Again, the before and after photos show a world of difference, and this brings huge satisfaction to your mind, releasing lots of positive hormones.
Other garden tasks include simple things like trimming hedges, trees or bushes. Once more, these tasks are wildly satisfying and super relaxing. You’ll love seeing an overgrown hedge become much neater after a quick trim. The same goes for just about every aspect of your garden; watching it become less overgrown and more tidy makes you feel happy! You feel accomplished after completing the tasks, and they help you forget about whatever was bothering you.
Ironing & folding laundry
When you were a child, ironing your clothes and folding them felt like the worst task on the planet. As you get older, you realise how relaxing tasks like these are. It’s a combination of the nice freshness from newly washed and dried laundry to the satisfaction of ironing out creases or folding clothes in neat piles.
Seriously, ironing your clothes is very satisfying. Especially when they’ve just been washed and are creased to hell. Getting an iron and working out the creases until you have a perfectly smooth item of clothing is amazing. You feel like you’ve accomplished something big, and your brain loves the satisfaction of how the ironed clothing looks, which puts you in a better mood.
Folding your clothes is similar; it’s probably less satisfying but equally relaxing. You get into the rhythm of folding everything until you’ve got neatly organised piles. It’s one of those tasks that used to be a chore but is now one of the best things you can do to relieve stress!
Completing a jigsaw puzzle
Puzzles are extremely stimulating and you’re encouraged to do them if you struggle with stress. It gets you away from doom-scrolling on your phone as well, so you’ll feel much better mentally after. The cool thing about puzzles is how you can up the difficulty depending on what sort of challenge you like. If you want a project that’ll take weeks to do, then pick a big puzzle that’s hard to complete.
You’ll come back to it every night and can spend an hour or so fiddling with pieces and trying to work out a solution. It’s mentally challenging but in the best possible way. Your brain feels stimulated, it’s distracted from the day’s stressors, and you start feeling more relaxed.
Colouring in pictures
You might think colouring in is a child’s activity, but you’re wrong! Colouring books for adults are growing in popularity as everyone realises the relaxing potential of this activity. It’s so satisfying when you colour in a lovely picture and all the different colours come together. You feel like an artist, only minus most of the effort!
Saying it out loud sounds so silly, but there’s a satisfaction in colouring within the lines. You can spend hours focusing on getting the right colour shades for the right parts of the image – all the while, your stress simply melts away.
Don’t assume you have to do lots of crazy mindfulness activities to feel relaxed when you’re stressed. Many regular tasks and activities will help you feel better by being extremely satisfying to do. Try any of the ideas above the next time you need a mental break.
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