There are better ways to de-stress than stroking puppies

Deadlines are looming and the time has gone where partying until the early hours of the morning and spending all of our free time with good old Netflix is passable.

There are the generic de-stress methods your mum might tell you, you know – run a bubble bath, light a scented candle and soak your worries away.

However, a bit of lavender and some soap just ain’t always cutting it, so it was worth trying out some of the weirder suggestions the internet had to offer.

Blow up a balloon:

Blowing up a balloon brings you back to the good old days of bouncy castle parties and princess cake.

One blog claims that blowing up a balloon forces you to breathe more slowly, reduces your heart rate and relaxes your muscles.

Not hippie crack

This was quite a fun method and although it made me feel like I was celebrating a birthday party without the birthday part, it will distract you from the mountain of work you have to do.

Face Yoga:

This sounds rather odd. Statistics claim that young children laugh an average of 140 times a day. Adults? Only 12 to 14 times… since when did we turn into a society of lifeless zombies?

Face yoga

The face yoga should be recommended to everyone, even though it makes you look like a complete tit. Most importantly it did distract me from work, and freaked out my flat mates in the process.

Spread the love:

Everyone loves a hug. Recent ‘cuddle’ research claims that hugging reduces blood pressure and relieves that stored up stress.

Giving someone a hug is absolutely FREE, the word students have grown to love. It works instantaneously, releasing the stress of two or more people at the same time. All you need it a willing partner.

The more hugs, the better for you stress levels. Hug all your flat mates or the people in your early morning lecture.

Be cautious though – as strange as this sounds, people don’t appreciate being hugged randomly by a stranger, so always ask first.

Swearing:

Ah, one of my favourite stress relieving methods. According to scientific research, swearing in high-pressured situations helps you endure stressful situations, and relieve all that stored up frustration.

Fucking swearing is pretty damn liberating and proves extremely useful when your deadline is the next day. You bitch.

Shake what your mother gave you:

Shake your money makers, whip your hair back and forth and shake it off people. Dancing has been proved to reduce stress and improve your body image.
So put your favourite throwback playlist on full blast, grab your hair brush and dance around your house like no one is watching. Turns out you don’t need to get completely smashed to have a whale of a time.

The Kung Fu solution:

Normally we don’t endorse violence as a solution to your problems, but on this occasion channel your inner crouching tiger and be Jackie Chan.

Venting your anger with Kung Fu moves can be a tremendous solution to stress. Plus it makes you look bad-ass.

Tea-bagging:

This is one of the most time consuming methods. I had to leave the tea bags in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then freeze for a further 20 minutes so I didn’t melt my eyes. So if you want some tea-bag down time, then prepare in advance.

Not going to lie, this method was EXTREMELY boring and time consuming. By the end, it looked like my eyes were leaking sewage water and I stank of a British tea lover for the rest of the day.