What are your tips for relieving stress?

[Bluesky91]

Chronic stress. Stemming from :

1. losing 50% of our net worth in the last couple of years (500k). We now only have our equity in our house.
2. stressful job
3. unloved marriage (cannot leave. Pls no judgement here)
4. past trauma with harassment from inlaws. NC right now.

I feel a lot of stress in my face, losing hair and aging fast. I’m 42, probably perimenopausal too.

I joined a gym last week and started attending exercise classes 3x a week.

what is your go to thing or activity for quick stress relief?

Self care - hot bubble bath, face mask, paint my nails, blow dry my hair etc anything that makes me feel good about myself.
A walk in nature/the countryside

I think it can vary but I'm getting better at recognising what will help on any given day now. Usually its either a dog walk with podcasts or a book on, music on loud in car and driving somewhere I can have nice food or a lovely view/take dog, sketching with pens or doodling, trying to fill a bag for charity or the bin, gardening in the sun - planting bulbs in pots and de-weeding/dead-heading or going for a walk and chat with friends (that last one is great and I need to plan more of those as I always feel much lighter).

My faith - prayer, scripture, meditation
Time with family - hanging out, chatting, etc
Listening to podcasts while pottering around the house or driving
Time outdoors every day
Hot showers/baths
Regular back massage
White noise when going to sleep
Ashwaghanda supplement
Practising the physiological sigh (see this by Andrew Huberman on YouTube) when I feel anxiety physically overwhelming me

Agree with exercise being the best thing.

For me being near water or nature so I would head to the woods or beach to clear my head.

Also, sex helps.

Thank you, I'll look this up on you tube, I'm feeling very overwhelmed with health anxiety and am absolutely desperate to get rid of it.

Rain music gets me to sleep.
Laura Mitchell relaxation (simple and used by the army now I believe).
Lighting candles.
Always having a weekend away booked to look forwards to.
Brisk walks in the fields.
Sitting watching the birds for 20mins.
Watching the sunset or sunrise.

I’m sorry, I’ve got to ask - is this an AI post? It reads like one and I’m curious.

Sure fire things to calm me a bit:

• a walk, alone, in nature
• cutting out coffee, even temporarily
• turning off devices, no social media
• some time alone with a book
• gentle yoga
• gardening (counts as stress relief because the list of jobs gives me stress, even doing one makes me feel vaguely adequate)

Sorry you're having a hard time. I hope there's a bit of relief for you soon.

Has anyone tried accupuncture before for stress? Does it help?!

Sorry to hear you're going through so much at the moment OP.

I'm currently v stressed too but through my work I discovered just today that I have access to various wellbeing stress programmes. I've just started something called 'space from stress' on SilverCloud today which is apparently based on CBT.

I'm not sure what work you do of course, but does it provide anything like that or maybe access to counselling etc?

Nature.
Music.
Breathing.

Control the stuff you can control. Stressful job? Then I work longer hours and get that to do list shorter. I find a way to manage emails so I don't get inundated etc.