We talked stuff that works you up, how about things that you do to calm down? What techniques, activities, mantras, stims, etc. do you do to keep yourself comfortable and safe? Feel free to share what you’d like - and something kinda cool is that you might end up helping someone else down the line.
When I need to calm down super fast I literally pretend I am an old school zen-buddhist monk and pull my arms up to my side bent (breathing in) and then push them down saying “zen body, zen mind” all while doing a big long breath out. Plus side is when I do this around people it seems to always illicit laughs, and not in the bad way. So that also helps cool me down. Sometimes being a muppet can be a blessing =P!
I can fidget with my septum piercing all day and make faces like I’m taking a nasty poop or having a really weird think and just be with it because you know - my body so =P!
I take my thumb and rub my finger like I’ve got one of those worry stones, only it’s my index finger instead of a stone. It’s a low-low one and Idk if anyone even knows I do this. I also do “wave-toes” which are like flowering my toes back and forth and man it’s calming.
Humming is basically like medicine to me. I heard it stimulates your vagus nerve, and I think it’s true. I also sing, and think I might be a bit louder overall because of it. I say this because when I cough when I’m sick it’s really loud and deep. And I think practicing something that utilizes your diaphragm probably strengthens it. So humming might not work for everyone? But it sure works for me.
Lastly I destroy my cheeky-cheeks. Sorry cheeks. But you’re my chew toy.
Actually there’s something expressly not mentioned in that if something is distressing me like a five-star alarm I will remove myself from said thing and typically it seems to cause no real trouble. And to keep myself less-stressed over high stress situations I just give things an (insane) amount of practice until things flow so I am less freaked da-fugg out.
As for chill stuff I’m pretty standard in that I love watching things that feel humanistic in some way to me (although I tend to watch animated things more, and will say growing up I dug anime but am not really about it anymore although I can watch some of my older stuff), love hanging with my missus and our pets and doing whatever is “on the agenda,” love when the creativity bug bites in any manner (writing, drawing, singing, dancing, sewing, painting, etc.), will always think of books as my best-friends (because I love them dearly), like to cook some good food and chill.
I like nature, and have always appreciated it in whatever form I’ve been around. But I am having trouble that it seems like anywhere and everywhere I go now it’s almost too cluttered, crowded, and everything feels like it’s “on-rails.” I will say that I think as the population has expanded it has gotten harder for me to live as a whole. But I am doing okay right now. It’s weird to love people, but also get incredibly overstimulated by them.