Easy yet effective tips for coping with stress better?

This might sound silly, but I knit a lot and it is a great way to relieve the stress you're talking about. Getting one row of a pattern done takes only a few minutes (depending on the pattern, of course) and it is incredibly soothing. I would start with Barbara Walker's http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0942018133/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and start with square one and then move forward from there. It will probably take you many years to complete (I started mine over a year ago and am still working on it!) but it is incredibly stress-relieving, fairly inexpensive (you can get all the yarn you need at any big box craft store, as well as needles), and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Other things that I do when I am feeling exactly how you feel: - Go on a walk in the neighborhood and make a point to notice at least three lovely things - Get out of my house in some way by going to a coffee shop, the local library, the mall - not even to do anything, just to not be at home because home is where my bed is and bed is where my depressive self likes to hang out the most - Let things go - I eat out more (salads at McDonalds are surprisingly good), let the dust bunnies pile up, etc. and don't beat myself up about it. No one knows but my cat (and sort of my boyfriend) that I am a secret slob!!! It's OK! - Journal. Having a dedicated time to barf it all out is really good for me. - Have a project that is not too challenging but that has a physical product as the endpoint (like the knitting above) - Yoga. I take a yoga class with the nicest, kindest, sweetest teacher on earth and it is full of nice people and I give myself permission to not talk to anyone there and to just be, just be, and to stretch and to not pay attention to anyone but myself and my body, for an hour a week. Sometimes I skip it when I want to cry instead, but I find that it is really good for me when I am able to make myself go. - Making sure that I do NOT BEAT MYSELF UP when I lie in bed, or don't shower for a few days, or cancel seeing my friends because I just want to be a puddle of tears in bed. Whatever. So be fucking it. It's OK, it's ok, It Is O.K. - Hot showers, hot baths, hot hot hot water. It's cleansing. Oh, swimming in a swimming pool is great because it's like, warm water cozy and it's also exercise. Oh, finally, this? I'd prefer advice/habits that I'm able to carry out within the span of a few minutes - I figure that if it takes any more time, it would probably be time better spent towards trying to prepare healthy food or exercise that day. This is you beating yourself up. Here's the thing that I've found with myself. This is just me and it might not apply, but for me, for me - I end up not doing anything and sitting in a pile of filth and sad instead of doing that relaxing hobby that I enjoy. And then I end up in the same place that I was but without having done something that could have made me feel good. Hobbies might take time, but are you really going to plan healthy meals for the week instead? And then are you really, truly going to enact those plans? I think if the answer was yes that you would not be asking this question - and that is OK. It's OK. Knitting sometimes feel stupid to me, because I look up and think, "Gosh, I could have been cleaning, or making healthy food for the week, or, or, or, and instead I was sitting around enjoying myself and being in the moment and feeling momentary calm" and what is so wrong with that? What is wrong with that? It beats the alternative - feeling bad about myself and my stressors and being mean to myself. Take care.

If meditation usually helps you but you're too fidgety to sit through it, you might try coloring. If you have a free $40, you can buy yourself a really nice pack of colored pencils and a coloring book (try tessellations or mandalas or other repetitive patterns for maximum relaxation). I thought it was a little ridiculous (I like to craft but coloring seemed so uncreative), but I find it really relaxing and a good way to turn off my inner (super anxious) monologue for a while.

I'm going through a period of very high stress, including some life stressors plus Way Too Many Things. Here is what has been helpful for me: Kelly McGonigal's TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en. I'm on https://habitrpg.com for personal goals. I add tags to my tasks, and some of those tags function as help buttons. When I am feeling stressed or anxious enough to be having trouble, I click on my stress tag (I use an emoji symbol) and start running through the list of tasks and reminders that help me through it. One of my first and most helpful tags was my 'frozen' button. If I am completely frozen, I click on it and it brings up a very short list. The first two items on the list always get me moving. Item 1 is 10 seconds of mindfulness; I usually look out the window at a nice scene. Item 2 is going to the bathroom. It's weird, but it works. Once I stand up to go to the bathroom, the ice is broken, and I do the thing I need to do instead, or end up cleaning a bit and then approaching the thing I was avoiding, which are items 3 (do a physical activity) and 4 (address some part of the thing that is causing my anxiety). The key is to know that the only thing I am required to do is actually go to the bathroom. Specific things I find most effective, beyond sleep and remembering to eat: - Ask yourself, "What would be the most healthy and most self-compassionate thing for me to do right now?" Sometimes that means taking a nap. Sometimes it means attacking a project. - Lower your expectations. No, lower than that. Simplify. Say no. Be ruthless about putting things on hold or getting rid of them altogether. Do what you reasonably can, healthily, imperfectly. What you reasonably can do will vary. - Related to the active meditation I mention below, but worth noting because it has a HUGE effect: go for a walk among trees, ideally in the sun. - Allow. Allow pain, sadness, anxiety, and imperfection. Embrace it. It's okay. It's part of living. It's the bitter dark chocolate of life. - Counter any negatively biased or unhelpful thoughts with reality-based, problem-solving thoughts. - Give compassion to yourself and others. This means accepting and appreciating yourself and others as whole, flawed beings. In concrete terms, for yourself, it means actively caring for yourself (supportive tasks and thoughts) with love in your heart. For me, it feels a lot like being my own loving parent. - I frequently remind myself that things are not supposed to go well, and I feel less upset when they don't, because that's just what happens sometimes. I read this analogy somewhere: life is not a script that I write. It is an improv. Other helpful things: - Short, frequent periods of mindfulness, gratitude, or returning to your breath throughout the day. - Leaving behind problem-solving and allowing, accepting, and appreciating every once in a while. - Physically active mindfulness meditation when I can, usually cleaning or walking. It's much more doable than sitting still and focusing on breath. - Finding ways to enjoy and value all of the things I am doing. - Music. - Journal writing for really bad days or complex issues.

Hi, are you living my life? Sorry you're going through such a rough time. You have my sympathy. One thing I've seen pop up a lot lately that you can do quickly is called the 4-7-8 breathing technique. You can google for details, but basically you inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, then exhale through your mouth for 8. Repeat. It's been touted as useful for stress reduction, anxiety and falling asleep faster. YMMV, but it can't hurt, right? For muscle pain & tightness, a heating pad and a http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14504/why-everyone-needs-to-try-foam-rolling-how-to-do-it.html can help a lot. Also, yoga. If you think you hate yoga because it's too weird and hippie, at least give these http://www.doyouyoga.com/course/the-30-day-yoga-challenge/ a try. They're all short (20 mins or less) and of varying intensity. The restorative yoga (Day 22) and yoga for better sleep (Day 29) might be good places to start. I don't know about you but I get super tense when I'm stressed and yoga is a good release for that. Best of all it can be done at home, in your PJs if you want. The other thing I like to do is try to get a few minutes of sunshine. This time of year is particularly dark and sunshine always helps improve my mood. Last but not least, try to give yourself some grace. Life is shitty right now. It's OK to not do the dishes and not always eat healthy and skip your workouts sometimes. Take shortcuts where you can - use disposal dishware, buy premade salads, skip your workouts. This will pass, but in the mean time, try to cut yourself some slack. Just do the best you can every day, even if your best is staying in bed all day.

It sounds like you have some legit reasons to take time to process what is going in your life. This is a real part of being alive, and trying to manage that through pharmacology is unhealthy. It sounds very much from your narrative that you expect to operate entirely normally through difficult experiences, and that your reactions can and should be repressed and controlled. I've never seen that work out. Maybe you can be the "miracle," but I don't think so. You're going to have to feel your feelings. These feelings will probably be strong and require temporary accomodation like time off from your regular schedule and expectations for yourself. I suggest setting boundaries for yourself with your therapist's guidance so you don't "go too far" in your processing of your emotions. I don't think you can reasonably expect that difficult times won't alter your life significantly, at least temporarily. Utilizing your therapist and writing down lists and goals might help you process quicker and get back on track once this difficult time in your life subsides.

I have never gotten to the point of being able to "meditate" per se, but I like doing mindfulness and breathing exercises. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-mindfulness-app/id417071430?mt=8 is great. I do their 5 Minute Body Scan sometimes in the morning or before bed. This was recommended by a CBT therapist. I also like the http://www.calm.com/ app and their website. I've also been using white/colored noise to chill out. http://simplynoise.com/ is great. Also with Calm you can turn on one of their background noises. I often put that on with the built-in timer in bed and fall asleep to it.

I just posted about this in a thread on the blue before having read this, but--okay, before I get to that part, I will say that I mention this now and then, but if you haven't tried it yet, talk to your doctor about taking a beta blocker with a stimulant if you don't deal well with stimulants normally. I take my ADD meds with a beta blocker and it improves the side effects significantly. I get the feeling from part of this that you'd be managing better if you could still be taking your meds. So, okay, that said, the thing that helps me cope with stress best is generally keeping up with exercising on a regular basis. For me, a walk isn't good enough; I need to be working hard, to the brink of exhaustion. I'm not anybody who's going to be running any marathons here, but whatever I'm doing, I try to do intervals of going all-out. So, two minutes slow, one minute as fast as I can possibly go, for ~30min. By the last interval I feel like I'm going to die, afterwards I'm exhausted--and my brain functions considerably better, everything seems easier, life is less overwhelming. I have a feeling it has to do with endorphins. Whatever, it works. It also improves the ADD stuff, but not to the point where I'd want to go without medication, it more just seems to make my meds work more efficiently. But just exercising didn't work, it has to be "going until I can't go anymore" levels. I'm still trying to figure out how to achieve that at home because some days getting to the gym is hard, but I'm sure there are ways.

Oh! Yeah, so I recently took up knitting during a really stressful time ans it's been amazing. Really calming, and the act of learning something new has helped keep some of the spiraling in my head at bay. I can't catastrophize while I'm learning to purl.

I can't believe anyone is suggesting you knit. A far better idea would be ... to crochet! Yes, I will join the fiber arts coalition. In fact, my favorite combo is crochet plus an audiobook. Another good stress reliever is gardening. Back when I was incredibly broke and extremely busy, growing little lettuce and kale plants from seed was the only hobby I kept up. The costs are minimal, and it's so satisfying.