Are you subjected to a high-stress job every day? Do you feel like you will collapse with exhaustion if one more thing is put on your plate? It would help if you had some fun things to do to melt that stress and tension away from your life.
You can’t live to work, and you can’t be all about having fun, which is why you need a delicate balance of each. A recent study was done by UX Collective on why employers should add more fun to their business. Employees who enjoy their time at work typically don’t have near the stress of other folks, and they are more productive.
A fun atmosphere in which joking, laughter, and team-building activities are used creates an environment where people want to work. If you rank your stressors in life, your job will probably fall at number one, followed by your family. Sadly, not all companies use this philosophy, and the stress tends to pile up and smother you.
However, while you cannot control the atmosphere at work, you can manage your response to stress by finding some fun things to do. You can laugh away the blues and do tons of other things to improve your mental health.
Twelve Fun Things To Do To Eliminate Stress
Are you tired of stressing out every day and feeling like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders? Well, today, you can turn over a new leaf. It’s time for you to make some significant changes that can impact your entire life. Are you ready to be a new, improved you? Well, here are 12 things you can do to help get some fun and laughter back into your life.
1. Take a Weekend Away
When is the last time you took time away for yourself? If you have a spouse or significant other, why not escape for a weekend of rest? Your body needs time away from the regular daily routine so that you can rejuvenate your mind.
You don’t need to travel far, but if you’re adventurous, you can hop a plane and go somewhere spectacular. Still, you don’t need to spend a ton of money. You need a break from the daily grind so that you can come back feeling recharged.
2. Goof off a Little Bit
Even if you don’t feel like laughing, it’s the best medicine for stress. When you’re laughing, you’re releasing those feeling-good hormones as well as increasing your blood circulation. All these effects will lessen tension in your body.
If you feel like you must fake it at first, don’t worry. Even a fake laugh can turn into an honest belly chuckle in no time. Did you know that laughter is infectious? If you start laughing, it won’t be long till the people around you begin to laugh.
Don’t forget to laugh at yourself on occasion, too, especially when you do something silly. It keeps things light, and when you’re laughing at your mistakes, then you don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself. When you’re engaging in this time of joy, it reminds you that you can never take things too seriously.
3. Have a Picnic
Picnics are always a lot of fun. It’s the combination of nature, the sunshine, and good food that heightens your mood. Gather some of your best friends and family for an old-fashioned picnic. If you live near the beach, it’s even a better place to enjoy a great ambiance.
If you don’t live near a park or the beach, you can still use your backyard as a hangout. You don’t have to go far from home to have a good time, but you must learn to find stress relief even at home. One important thing that most people don’t realize is that what you eat at these picnics could also help your mood.
Most people love watermelon, tomatoes, and pink grapefruit. Inside these delicious fruits is a substance called lycopene. A recent article from the National Library of Medicine found that lycopene can help relieve stress and tension. Add this powerful element with vitamin D from the sun, and you’ve got a great pick me up with your friends.
4. Spend Time With a Pet
Pets have healing powers, which is why they’re often used in a nursing home and for therapy. Many studies have been conducted on these animals, and they can not only lower your heart rate, but they can also get those feel-good chemicals, like dopamine, releasing in the brain. Even if you must do stressful jobs, bringing your pet along can help you relax enough to do the task at hand.
5. Go For a 20 Minute Walk
When you think of fun things to do, you might not consider a walk. A lovely 20-minute stroll down your street can help you to reset your stress levels. Walking is exercise, and it gets the serotonin levels in your body to increase. Plus, you’re getting loads of vitamin D from the sun’s powerful rays, so that this walk can be very beneficial to your mood.
Bring along a good friend, your spouse, or children to have a good conversation while you walk away from all the stresses of the day.
6. Go to Your Happy Place
Everyone has a happy place that they love to go to escape the world. Is your happy place the beach, the mountains, or maybe your grandma’s house? Visualize yourself in that place for a moment.
Imagine the smells wafting through the air, the scenery that you enjoy, and all the things that make this place so wonderful. The best part is you can take a day trip in your mind even sitting at your desk at work.
7. Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
Have you ever danced in your living room to some good music? Dancing is a great exercise, plus it’s good to clear your mind. Put on your boogie shoes and dance the night away, and who knows, your kids or spouse might want to join in too.
8. Meditate for 20 Minutes
When it comes to stress relief, meditation is supreme. Not only does it incorporate controlled breathing, but it also purges the negativity from your body, mind, and spirit. A session can be anywhere from 5-20 minutes, and you can do it just about anywhere you start feeling your tensions rise.
The National Library of Medicine reported a pilot study where participants meditated 15 minutes, two times each day. By the end of the three-week experiment, 67 percent of the people saw a significant reduction in their stress levels. While it may not be on top of the list for fun things to do, it certainly can be beneficial.
9. Write Yourself a Positive Message
Sticky notes can be your best friend. You can use them to write positive messages or even something funny for you to see. Hang some on the bathroom mirror, on your computer screen at work, or anywhere that you need a boost in your spirit or attitude during the day.
10. Attend an Outdoor Concert
Forget being crammed in a building with thousands of people hearing a good band. Why not take the party outside? A concert with some good music, friends, and the sunshine may be just what you need to have fun and enjoy life.
11. Create a “Gratitude Sandwich.”
When you think of a sandwich, your mind wonders about ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, and all the other fixings. However, a gratitude sandwich isn’t something you eat, but you ingest differently. To make your sandwich, you want to figure two things that are great in your life and one bad.
So, if you have a great job, a boss with whom you don’t get along, and have great fringe benefits, you can use that as one sandwich. What you’re doing is retraining your brain to overlook the negative by focusing on the positive aspects. You can use this trick with just about any part of your life.
The key is to stop spending so much time dwelling on the negatives, significantly since the positives outweigh them. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and draw your gratitude sandwich and watch how it changes your perspective on things. Who’s hungry for that hoagie now?
12. Smell Your Partner’s Shirt
Of all the fun things to do, you probably didn’t imagine smelling your partner’s shirt would be one of them. In fact, the very mention of such a task might sound a bit creepy to you. However, a study conducted by the American Psychological Association shows that it can lower your stress levels and help you feel better overall.
Final Thoughts on Fun Things To Do
Remembering to have fun isn’t always easy, especially when your daily responsibilities consume you. However, it would help if you learned to take things one day at a time. While it’s not so easy to accomplish this task, it’s worth all the effort to learn new ways of living.
Did you see anything on the list that inspired you? If you want to decrease your stress levels and start enjoying life again, then pick a couple of these fun things to try.
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