❄️ Chill Out With Jasie ❄️
I know there’s already a lot of posts with resources for calming down and chilling out, but I thought I’d put together some of my personal favourites, if only for my own reference. But hopefully you guys will find it helpful as well!
🍲🍴 My first suggestion is a Japanese cooking channel on YouTube called Peaceful Cuisine. I don’t even know how to describe it in a way that does these videos justice! For one thing, they’re absolutely beautiful, so they have that going for them. Honestly, if you only try one thing on this post, check out this channel.
The recipe videos are available with music and without. I honestly don’t have a preference – the music is always soothing and beautiful. There’s something that is very comforting without the music as well though. You can focus on just the sounds of the kitchen and feel like you’re there. If you’re into ASMR, you’ll probably enjoy the no music versions!
Either way, the creator, Ryoya, doesn’t speak in most of the recipe videos, so if you’re like me and can’t always process speech well when you’re stressed, that may appeal to you!
All of the recipes are vegan, and have English instructions provided. There’s also an app, if you’re into that sort of thing!
🌲🍄 My next suggestion is an app called Forest. The purpose of Forest is to keep you focused on your tasks, and while it’s certainly boosted my productivity, it’s also really helpful to find a bit of chill.
You plant a seed, set a timer, and as long as you don’t leave your app to go look at twitter or talk on skype or check your tumblr notifications, the seed will grow into a bush or tree. The more you grow, and the longer you grow, the more you can unlock new plants!
Checking in on your plant and watching it grow is nice, and seeing your forest at the end of the day feels like an accomplishment. But honestly it’s just a cute way to stay off your phone if checking your phone is getting in the way of your life and stressing you out. (It also makes a great meditation timer, for the record!)
💻👥 The next on the list isn’t a specific link, just more of a practice, and that’s: embrace the joy of secret or private accounts. I have a secret tumblr that is on a completely separate login email so I don’t even have to look at my dashboard, and I only follow tumblrs that post inspirational quotes and pretty pictures. Lots of seasonal blogs. I reblog the things I like best onto my secret tumblr, and just the act of curating posts for it calms me down, but I can also later view my tumblr and immediately feel a sense of peace.
On pinterest I have tons of secret boards. Making a new one for a new topic can be pretty relaxing, but I also have a chillout board similar to my tumblr, filled with pictures that I find calming and peaceful.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have a private twitter account I go to in order to screech and rant about things in private, just to let them out!
🛌📱 Back to apps! #SelfCare has a lot of mini-game type options within that are all designed to bring you relaxation and help you be calm and mindful. And as you do those things, the app rewards you with items for your in-app altar, which you can arrange to your liking.
In the app, you can light candles, do breathing exercises, pet a cat, check the moon phase, and more.
🍃🧺 I primarily unwind via YouTube if I’m being honest, and Li Ziqi’s channel is one of the best. It’s hard to describe exactly how soothing it is, watching her wander into the woods, followed by baby farm animals, sewing her own cloaks and cooking her own food, often with tools made by herself.
Her videos are one part food vloggy, one part pastoral country life content, mixed with some honestly incredible displays of traditional Chinese skills and recipes. Like Peaceful Cuisine, there’s minimal speech and soft, comforting music. (However, unlike Peaceful Cuisine, her content is not vegan.)
📔🖋️ I’m really big into journaling. It comes in many forms, and I do a lot of them. But when I’m worked up, I find that it can be really helpful to grab a notebook and just write down everything I’m thinking and obsessing over. I don’t necessarily have to figure it out, I just put down what’s in my head and allow myself to get as dark, angry or depressed as I want to be. In those moments, I often just feel so overwhelmed and like I want all of that stuff out of me – the journal gives it somewhere to go.
However, even just a regular journaling practice has been really helpful for me. I don’t write every day, and I don’t put pressure on myself to do so. When there’s something I’m really trying to work through in my head though, I’ve made it a point to grab my journal and start writing.
A lot of people hype up journaling to the point where it becomes something that actually stresses them out to think about doing. I was that way for years – I’d start a new journal, write one or two entries, miss a day, give up, try and come back two years later, lather, rinse, repeat. I went from that to now having three journals I’ve written in, cover to cover. It would probably take its own whole post to get into all of it but like, honestly? I think it’s worth investing the time to get over any journaling hangups because it’s such a rewarding practice on so many levels. If you want some advice, lemme know!
🧹✨ This isn’t the most glamorous or exciting thing I do, and honestly, it’s something I often find myself avoiding! But when I’m super stressed out, I like to channel that into cleaning or organizing, especially things I’ve been putting off for awhile. It gives me an immediate sense of relief and accomplishment, which is nice, and the act of it can be cathartic or even meditative.
Sometimes I’ll just clear out the files on my computer, update and edit the metadata of my files, or go through tumblr and clear out drafts of posts I don’t actually need to be there anymore.
But I also do things like tackle projects in my room or home that I haven’t gotten around to, like corners that need cleaning or boxes of miscellaneous items I’ve been meaning to sort through.
Honestly, a lot of the time, not doing stuff like this is the cause of a lot of my anxiety, so it makes sense that dealing with it would make me feel better. But there’s also that it helps me take my mind off of things and instead focus on something that’s more productive! And the act of getting rid of physical (or digital) clutter in my life helps get rid of the cluttered thoughts in my head as well.
I might do a part two of this post at some point in the future, since this one has gotten so long and I’ve still got more to share. I hope at least some of it was useful to some of you!
