What Calms Your Soul

This week’s journal entry:

Everyone gets stressed or anxious at some point in their lives. For some, it might be a daily occurrence. What calms you down or relaxes you, and why do you think they work?

By Laura Black

Unfortunately, the older I get, the more anxious I find myself. There are certain things that tend to trigger it (which is an entirely separate journal entry), but sometimes I have no idea what makes me anxious. With this anxiety, I have learned certain techniques and things that can calm me down or at least make me not as anxious as I originally was. I’m always looking for new techniques to help me, though. Below is a list of things that calm me down or help me to relax and the reasons why I think they work. I know everyone is different, so they may not work the same for you.

1.      Rain – More specifically, listening to rain. I love a good thunderstorm, as long as I can be inside and not be out in it. The sound of rain falling from the sky and hitting an object relaxes me. As I write this, I can hear the rain dropping down onto our roof, and I just want to chill out and read a book. The best way for me to relax is sitting in the living room with the windows open, curled up on the couch, listening to the rain while I read a book. Of course, the rest of the house has to be quiet. The quiet sets the tone for the relaxation to take place properly. Ahh, I can picture it my mind right now.

2.      Reading a novel – I absolutely LOVE to read fiction. I love to put myself in the minds of my characters and completely lose myself in their carefully crafted lives. I have a vivid imagination, and that imagination tends to make me more anxious than I need to be. Because of this, I can easily pick up a novel and get trapped in the story and the mind the author has created. For me, this relaxes me because it pulls me away from whatever I’m stressing about or anxious about in real life. It’s one of my favorite escapes from reality. Almost every night I read in bed before going to sleep. This is my main way to decompress for the day. If I don’t read before bed, then I tend to replay my entire day in my head and try to mentally fix or correct anything that went wrong in my day. This could keep me up for hours, so reading eliminates this for me.

3.      Music – Music has always been an important part of my life. I don’t have one particular genre that I like. I will listen to just about anything. For me, I’m all about words, so it’s usually the lyrics that draw me to any particular song. I love listening to music to hear the lyrics and try to connect with them. Of course, I do like some music for the beat, rhythm, or instrumentation behind it, but I’m mostly about the lyrics. I have certain songs that can calm me down or bring me back to reality on a positive level (that’s another journal entry too).

4.      Drawing – This is a new one for me. I took a drawing class for fun last summer. I’m a creative person, and I’ve never really drawn anything before, so I thought it would be fun to try. Although drawing is a lot harder than I thought, I did find it as another method to calm me. I wasn’t the best drawer at all, but I didn’t stress about it. I found it relaxing and just another way for me to express my creative side.

5.      Lavender essential oils – This is my go-to essential oil. Within the last year, I have discovered that I have less anxiety if I rub lavender essential oil on my wrists daily. I also made my own clay jewelry in which you can rub oils on and wear all day. I wear the jewelry when I feel I need a little extra boost to calm me down. I also like to put lavender essential oils in my diffuser as I read in bed each night while trying to fall asleep.

6.      Yoga – This is a rediscovered one for me. I did yoga regularly years ago in a weekly class, but I stopped doing it. I’ve tried to do it again from time to time on my own, but I could never stick to it. The College of Lake County, one of the schools I teach at, now offers a yoga certification. Since I have wanted to get back into yoga and know how well it does work for me with my anxiety and calming me down, I decided to pursue this certification. I took my first yoga class this spring to work toward this certification, and I’m so glad I did. I am now doing yoga again on my own. I’m still working on making it a daily routine, but I at least remember the benefits. Yoga calms me and recenters me. One of my biggest problems is I don’t know how to relax truly. Yoga does this for me, or at least it forces me to relax, even if it’s just for a short time.

7.      Writing – I saved the best for last. No matter what’s going on in my life, the one thing that’s always calmed me down or helped me refocus is writing. I’ve said it before, and I will continue to say it to anyone that will listen, writing can be therapeutic. Writing is a great way to get it all out. Whether you are writing in anger or writing with joy, writing out your feelings, thoughts, and emotions can drastically help you to feel better. It’s not good or healthy to hold it in and bottle it all up inside. Writing will always be my go-to for my anxiety and used to help me refocus and calm down. Once it’s all out, I can move on. Writing definitely calms my soul.