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32 Everyday Things That Could Easily Heal Your Soul, According To Peeps In This Viral Online Thread
Few people would doubt that therapy is incredibly important and useful when you need to heal your emotional wounds, try to ‘reboot yourself,’ and just relax in this crazy race called life. An experienced specialist will always help... well, almost always. But there are cases when therapy is quite successfully replaced by all sorts of small joys in life.
Simple little things that, nevertheless, fill our souls with peace and tranquility, make us breathe deeply, and feel the taste for life again. And it is precisely these things that are the subject of a recent online thread, a selection of the best opinions from which we present to you today.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Walking into the woods and bathing in the sunlight and coolness. There’s something about trees that gives me a sense of calm. That and petting cats and dogs.
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#3
Being at the beach, listening to the ocean.
Serena Myers 9 months ago
One of the favourites on the White Noise app on my phone. That and rain/storm sounds. Green noise is pretty nice too. Helps with my tinnitus.
The original thread appeared a little less than two weeks ago in the AskReddit community, where the topic starter, the user u/Radiant-Assumption53, asked people the question: "What's something that isn't therapy, but feels like therapy?"
Apparently, the author touched a nerve with netizens - because today the thread has over 8.1K upvotes and almost 10K various comments. The discussion turned out to be lively - a great opportunity to get acquainted with the most popular ideas.
#4
Taking a nap in the middle of the day.
#5
Laughing so hard with a friend that your stomach muscles ache.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 9 months ago
Does crying so hard alone that your stomach muscles ache count?
Riley Quinn 9 months ago
Sometimes. After a good hard cry, I'm calmer, more relaxed.
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#6
Alone time.
Colleen Glim 9 months ago
I crave alone time like I crave food. If I don’t get it, I get really cranky
It’s quite interesting that the simplest things often turn out to be the most effective in improving your mental health. Just walking in the forest or along the seashore, reading interesting books, hugging your loved ones, petting your cat or dog - all this really helps. However, it’s important that what you do really brings you pleasure. For example, many people love doing chores - so why not do it as a kind of therapy?
#7
Crafting. When you get in the zone it’s like meditation. For me, quilting by hand does the trick.
#8
Going to the movie theater alone is one of my so-called therapies. I sometimes go to the beach by myself. Being alone sometimes gives you peace.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 9 months ago
I love going to the cinema. I have always mostly gone by myself because circumstances, and maybe twice a year if I was lucky. But I haven't been for more than five years because I grew to really hate being pointed at and laughed at (''Look at that fatso loser eating popcorn! No wonder she's by herself!'') Does wonders for my social anxiety.
#9
A good talk with a friend isn't therapy, but sure feels like it.
Thee8thsense 9 months ago
My friend and I hike two miles every morning, talking while we do it. We call it walk and talk therapy.
"It is a well-known fact that the famous writer Agatha Christie came up with a significant part of her detective plots and stories while washing dishes manually in the sink," says Maria Kryvosheeva, a psycholgost and NLP coach, with whom Bored Panda got in touch with for a comment here. "She simply distracted herself from everyday life in this way, and could think over ideas for her books."
"This actually perfectly illustrates how such mechanisms work. Simple, familiar things give us the opportunity to clear our heads and get a share of dopamine, ‘the pleasure hormone.’ And regular repetition of this gradually smoothes out almost any wounds in the soul. Of course, all this will not replace therapy, but as an addition to it, it's nothing but great and useful."
#10
When I get home from work and my wife picks up our 5 month old boy so he can see me approach, and he does a full-face wide-mouthed squinty-eyed smile once he sees me. It resets my entire soul.
On a similar thread, once he is asleep and my wife is asleep and I have cleaned the kitchen and reset the house for the next day, I feel like I'm crossing some kind of finish line.
Richard Iachetta 9 months ago
I try very hard to never be jealous of anything. You made me fail today He is adorable
#11
Gardening. I cannot speak to the WHY of it but in numerous real world settings, such as post-WW2 relocation camps, people who participated in gardening found their way back to health at a rate far greater than those who did not.
#12
Playtime with my dog.
"Basically, any thing, any hobby that brings you pleasure, that allows you to detach yourself from painful memories, life problems, and experiences, makes you focus on more pleasant things - it's a kind of therapy. And, combined with a real therapy with a doctor, it could actually bring great results," Maria concludes. In fact, many things in our lives can trigger a surge of dopamine.
"Dopamine is most notably involved in helping us feel pleasure as part of the brain's reward system. [Intimacy], shopping, smelling cookies baking in the oven - all these things can trigger dopamine release, or a ‘dopamine rush,’" says Stephanie Watson, former Executive Editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. And dopamine is the first step to healing from a lot of mental anguish.
#13
Drawing.
Birma Gustafsson 9 months ago
I couldn't draw either, but I tried to ignore my inner voice which told me that I was sooooo baaaad at it, and after many hours of drawing, drawing, drawing, I finally started to understand how to really SEE what I drew, and how it got better from eye to hand and pencil. So hang in!! It will happen!!
#14
Music / dancing around to music.
keyboardtek 9 months ago
As a 70 year old, listening to music I enjoyed when I was 20 takes me right back to my youth and lifts my mood.
#15
Sunlight with good weather, greenery and tasty food that doesn’t make you feel bloated, sick or uncomfortable after.
Moana Manana 9 months ago
That's my absolute number one. If it's grey outside, I'm grey in my head. But sun rays giving me warm and tickel my face even in cold winter is just endorphine overload for me.
I believe you yourself have often encountered a situation when some simple everyday things work as a salvation from various mental issues, so if you have something that allows you to relax (and is not listed in this selection of ours), then please feel free to share it in the comments below. And of course, make sure to scroll this list to the very end - after all, maybe you could find something in there that's wholesome for you too.
#16
Going for a long drive with no destination in mind, just your favorite music blasting. There's something about the road, the tunes, and your thoughts that can really clear your mind and soothe your soul. It's like a reset button for a bad day.
Jude Laskowski 9 months ago
Since I became visually disabled, the one thing I miss is road trips. Just load my dog, a bag and go. Someone suggested a train trip, but it's just not the same.
#17
A massage.
#18
Baking bread from scratch. Something about kneading dough for 10 minutes straight just hits different. Plus, my apartment smells amazing and I get to stress eat warm bread after. Win-win.
Auntriarch 9 months ago
For me it's jam. Making jam takes just enough concentration to stop me circling, and you end up with a row of beautiful jars full
#20
Travel. I'm always better in a new place.
keyboardtek 9 months ago
I like being in new places, I just hate the getting there: highways are congested, drivers are rude, unsafe, and speed too much, airplane travel is such a hassle and now that Trump fired the people in charge of air safety the planes are crashing more.
#21
For me it's exercise, being able to turn off my brain while listening to music and exerting all of my energy into something positive is something I wouldn't be able to find in anything else really except fitness.
#22
Listening to music while reading the lyrics.
April Pickett 9 months ago
This works. I've got the songbook (all the lyrics) of Queen's songs. Every once in a while I'll go caroling along with Queen. I can't carry a tune, but I give my all upstairs where no one can hear me.
#23
My favorite self-care day starts with putting my phone on do not disturb. Next is getting a haircut and beard trim at the local barbershop. Then I go home and rinse off. Hit the gym. And then hit up a bakery for a croissant. I finish the afternoon with a trip to see a movie by myself with a big sugary drink and a bag of popcorn that I pour M&M's into.
Edit: I forgot to add that I don't tell anybody I took the day off from work.
#25
Dungeons and Dragons
I've had many bad games through the years but I can noticeably track the positive changes its had on my confidence and interpersonal skills, which is crazy for a game where you do funny voices and math.
Child of the Stars 9 months ago
My ex-husband and I are big tabletop gamers and started playing D&D with our kids when they hit about 3. It's not just fun and relaxing, but it's a great tool for a number of reasons. It teaches creativity, teamwork, leadership, and all the social skills. But it's also good for academics; when our oldest was struggling with learning to read, my ex-husband created a dungeon full of word puzzles that she had to solve. She was about 7 at the time and by the time she was 10, she was reading at the middle school level.
#26
Bob Ross!
Child of the Stars 9 months ago
Ooh, yes! When my kids were small, I insisted on an hour of quiet time where we didn't talk. But if they wanted to watch tv, they could choose either Bob Ross or Mr. Roger's Neighborhood; it was always a toss-up which they'd choose.
#27
Ceramics
- something about getting your hands in that malleable clay, being creative and making a mess.
#30
Psychedelics, i would argue they are superior to therapy.
Christopher “Jester” Šašek 9 months ago
I agree however people with control issues should not do psychedelics. If you can't let go and surrender to them, you will have a bad trip.
#32
Lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, and letting my existential crisis play like a slideshow. Surprisingly calming.
superfluous 9 months ago
Calming? I don't even understand how you play an existential crisis like a slideshow...
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What do you think ?
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 9 months ago
Warm, purring little psycho in my lap. Best therapy ever.
Dolevaal 9 months ago (edited)
Singing for me. Im a choire singer and I lovelovelove how the different voices will cone together, fall apart again, support each other. Yet its almost frightening somedays bc you cant really hide your feelings while you sing. Its super personal, even intimate and while thats actually a good thing and it can still feel kinda overwhelming. Still, finally nailing a piece after you practiced it for a good long time, the effects of different voices creating something together, the beauty of music itself is pretty dope.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 9 months ago
Warm, purring little psycho in my lap. Best therapy ever.
Dolevaal 9 months ago (edited)
Singing for me. Im a choire singer and I lovelovelove how the different voices will cone together, fall apart again, support each other. Yet its almost frightening somedays bc you cant really hide your feelings while you sing. Its super personal, even intimate and while thats actually a good thing and it can still feel kinda overwhelming. Still, finally nailing a piece after you practiced it for a good long time, the effects of different voices creating something together, the beauty of music itself is pretty dope.
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