Pick an highly engaging activity that will keep your attention away from what's stressing you out! For example:
- Watch a favorite show
- play a video game or do a puzzle
- clean up a room or an area of your home
- hang out with a friend or someone in your family
- read a book
Focus on helping someone else out. For example:
- Help a friend or family member with a project
- Donate items you no longer need
- Surprising a co-worker with a coffee
- Send a “thinking of you” text to someone you care about
Cultivate a sense of gratitude by doing one of the following:
- remind yourself how fortunate you are in some areas of your life
- Remember the progress you have made in an area of your life (even when more progress is needed)
- Think about others who may be dealing with similar issues and connect with a sense of common humanity.
Active opposite emotions from what you're feeling right now. For example:
- If you're feeling down, listen to uplifting music.
- If you're feeling anxious, listen to relaxing music.
- If you're feeling scared, watch a comedy show.
Give yourself a break from your thoughts, picture yourself doing it:
- Build an imaginary wall of bricks between your and your problems.
- Take a picture of your current situation and put it in a box that you can place on the shelf.
- Image your thoughts on a piece of paper that you fold into a paper airplane and send off into the wind.
Take your mind off your problems by putting other thoughts into your mind:
- Count backward from 100
- Say the alphabet backward
- Count all the shades of a certain color in the room
- Repeat a mantra or the words to your favorite song in your head
Embrace sensations that are different than what you're feeling right now. Or, pick any intense distraction sensation to embrace:
- If you're feeling hot, take a cold shower.
- If you're feeling cold, take a hot shower.
- Cut open a lemon or lime and take a bite.
- Hold an ice cube in your hand.