When you’re stressed, the usual advice—meditate, exercise, drink water—sometimes just doesn’t cut it.
Sure, they’re good things to do in general, but they don’t necessarily relieve the pressure or overwhelm you might be feeling when you’re at your lowest. However, there are other things you can try that might sound a bit weird, but have more of a chance of making a difference to your baseline mood and well-being. These are the more unexpected, slightly odd, but surprisingly effective habits that have genuinely helped people feel calmer when nothing else worked.
1. Talking out loud to yourself like a friend
It sounds strange, but narrating what you’re feeling—out loud, and with kindness—can change your stress levels in seconds. Something like, “Alright, I’m clearly overwhelmed, and that’s okay. Let’s just handle one thing at a time,” does more than you’d expect.
It helps externalise the spiral and reintroduces self-compassion into the moment. You stop being stuck inside the feeling and start gently guiding yourself through it, like you’d do for a friend who was losing it.
2. Putting your phone in another room and pretending it doesn’t exist
Not turning it off, not switching to aeroplane mode—I mean just physically placing it somewhere else—out of sight, out of reach. It feels silly at first, but the drop in mental static is almost instant. Suddenly, your brain stops scanning for updates, pings, or distractions. You breathe differently. You notice the space around you. And you remember what it’s like to be present without constant background noise.
3. Lying on the floor (no music, no distractions, just floor)
This one’s bizarrely calming. Not the couch. Not the bed. The floor. Something about grounding your entire body against a flat, firm surface resets your nervous system faster than expected. It removes stimulation and gives your mind nothing to cling to. You’re not trying to relax—you just end up doing it. Five minutes in, it somehow feels like your body’s finally exhaled.
4. Writing one brutally honest sentence in a notebook
Source: Unsplash Not journaling for pages. Not crafting anything beautiful. Just one raw, truthful sentence. “I’m burnt out and pretending I’m not.” “I feel like I’m failing.” “I want to run away from my life today.” This act of truth-telling is weirdly relieving. It’s like pulling a splinter out—small, sharp, but powerful. No one sees it. No one needs to respond. You just give your stress a place to land that isn’t your own head.
5. Doing one tiny task really slowly
Try folding a single towel as if it’s the most delicate silk on earth, or stirring your tea in slow motion. It sounds ridiculous, but slowing down a basic action forces your nervous system to match the pace. When your brain is in overdrive, physical slowness acts like a brake. It brings your focus down to one single movement, and weirdly, your mind starts to follow. It’s mindfulness disguised as basic movement.
6. Giving yourself permission to do something badly on purpose
Set out to write a bad email draft. Do a terrible five-minute yoga flow. Clean just one corner of a room, poorly. Lowering the bar like this sounds like a waste of time, but it tricks your stress response into softening. The perfectionism that drives most stress doesn’t know how to react when failure becomes allowed. You start laughing. You loosen up. And from there, ironically, better effort starts flowing without pressure.
7. Chewing something crunchy while pacing
This sounds oddly specific, but it works. Grab something noisy—like carrots, popcorn, or even ice—and pace while chewing. The movement plus the sensory feedback gives your body an outlet for pent-up stress. It activates your jaw, regulates breathing, and makes you feel like you’re “doing” something while expelling energy. It’s an underrated stress valve for fidgety people who feel agitated but frozen.
8. Setting a timer to worry on purpose
Instead of trying to block anxious thoughts, you give them a container. Set a timer for five or ten minutes and let yourself spiral—fully, without censorship. Say the worst-case scenarios. List the dramatic “what ifs.” Then, when the timer ends, you stop. It sounds backwards, but giving stress a designated time slot actually reduces its grip. Your brain gets to vent without hijacking the rest of your day.
9. Watching slow, satisfying videos with no plot
Source: Unsplash Soap cutting. Paint mixing. Lo-fi cooking videos with no dialogue. These low-stimulation visuals reset your nervous system in a way story-driven content can’t. They ask nothing from you—no plot to follow, no urgency, no intensity. It’s a gentle form of digital regulation. You’re still watching a screen, but it soothes instead of scatters. Sometimes your brain doesn’t need “uplifting,” It needs repetitive, calming content that doesn’t wake every nerve.
10. Asking “What’s the most unimportant thing I can do right now?”
This question disrupts the stress spiral by redirecting your energy into something playful or low-stakes. Watering plants. Organising a drawer. Doodling. Shuffling a playlist. You’re still doing something, but without the weight of needing to fix your whole life. And sometimes, this tiny act of harmless focus gives your brain just enough of a reset to get back on track.
