blogger profile

Kelly Love Johnson

Skirt! managing editor

Writer, editor, author, independent girly feminist hipster, slightly neurotic, cynically optimistic, compassionately liberal, fiscally conservative, somewhat intellectual, and always irreverent. ...

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Things that make me feel calm...

Kelly Love Johnson

Like most people, I have a tendency to internalize stress and use quick fixes (martinis, anti-anxiety medication) instead of working out the tension. About a year ago, I started keeping a working list in a file on my computer called “Things That Make Me Feel Calm.” I’ve printed out copies to carry with me on a plane. I have one in a book on my nightstand (I have racing-mind insomnia). I pull it up whenever I need a moment to breathe when I’m at work. I’ll share a few here: 

• Listening to NPR makes me feel calm. Especially Weekend Editions.
• Watching fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium via its web cams. My favorites are the Outer Bay cams. Very soothing.
• Music with a steady beat and few words, like The Crystal Method. I can listen to it all day at work.
• Washing dishes. I don’t own a dishwasher because there’s something very zen about hand washing a dish.
• Making mental lists of things, like the last 10 books I’ve read, songs for a mix cd, names of homeroom teachers back to kindergarten, etc.
• Crossword puzzles. Nerdy, yes, but this is my list. Don’t judge. I print them out from this web site a lot. I don’t like to do them online because it’s too easy to cheat.
• My cat. Or pictures of my cat when I’m not at home.
• The last 15 minutes of any yoga class.

Got your own list? Or other (healthy) ways that you de-stress? Share with the crossword-puzzle doing, trance music listening, fish-watching cat lady please!