How To Distract Your Mind From Stress or Anxiety

When you’re feeling stressed or anxious, it can often seem impossible to focus on anything else.

It’s often easy to let your feelings get the better of you, but by trying out a few simple tips and forming new habits, you can free yourself from these negative emotions for a brief period. If you’ve ever experienced stress before, it may feel like you have the same thoughts running through your head, as if they are impossible to turn off. Such repetitive thought patterns will not help you solve any of your issues. It can sometimes make them worse.

Suppose you can’t find positive distractions for yourself when you’re feeling stressed or anxious. In that case, your emotions can start to interfere with other aspects of your life – it may stop you from being able to focus at work, get a good night’s sleep, or live a healthy lifestyle.

You may have been told a few techniques in the past that aim to help you let go of stress and anxiety. While these methods can work for some people, they aren’t always the most effective way of dealing with things.

In this list of tips, we’ll be taking you through some distraction techniques that help you be more mindful of your emotions, allowing you to acknowledge what you’re feeling without any judgment!

The benefits of being more mindful

Mindfulness can have a range of beautiful effects on your mental health, helping you to overcome obstacles and deal with emotions as they come up. Let’s look at some of the benefits you could experience by being more mindful.

Get a better night’s sleep

Without mindfulness practices, you might be awake at night and staring at the ceiling. If you can’t find a way to calm down at the end of the day, it could stop you from getting a peaceful, restful night’s sleep.

It can have many knock-on effects in other areas of your life. You may not have the energy to exercise or eat a balanced diet, and you might not have the focus you need to get through a day of work.

Feel more creative

Stress and anxiety can seriously impact your creativity at work, preventing you from using your problem-solving skills and finding solutions to issues.

Stronger personal relationships

Using mindfulness techniques to distract yourself from stress and anxiety can also positively affect your relationships.

You may be more likely to accept other people’s flaws, be more satisfied with your relationships, and show more empathy to others.

Improved physical health

Mindfulness has excellent benefits for your mental health, but it can also work wonders for your physical health.

Some research has suggested that simple mindfulness techniques have been linked to improvements in psoriasis, arthritis, and lower back pain.

6 Ways to distract yourself from stress or anxiety

Stimulate yourself with memory games

Memory games can be challenging, and they require your full attention. It makes them a great way to focus your mind on something other than your thinking problems.

Try a game where you have to memorize a scene and recreate the photo in your mind. Give yourself a time limit and see how much you’re able to remember – try to do it in as much detail as possible!

Imagine leaving your stress and anxiety behind

Lie down in your bed, close your eyes and picture yourself gathering up all your emotions and storing them away in a box. Try to create this picture in as much detail as possible. Imagine where you are, your emotions, and the box.

Try out yoga or meditation

Lots of people love yoga and meditation as a way to feel connected to their bodies and slow down their minds. Focus on how your body is moving, together with your breathing. If you’re finding it hard to focus, you could put on some background music to help distract you from your thoughts.

Get your blood pumping and try a new sport

Working out can help you to relax – it’s easy to forget about your stress when you’re focusing on scoring goals or hitting a tennis ball. Go to your local gym, or meet some friends in the park to try and new sport and get your blood pumping.

Listen to soothing music

When you’re feeling stressed, you may not like listening to heavy rock or upbeat pop music with many sounds and instruments. Instead, find a calming playlist of soothing instrumental and vocal pieces that can help to relax your mind.

Take a long walk

When your emotions are overwhelming, you can take yourself out of the situation by taking a long walk. You can walk in silence, enjoying the sounds around you, or put your headphones in and listen to your favorite songs.
There are many different ways to relax and unwind when you feel stressed – try out other methods until you find the ones that are right for you!