Skip to main content Skip to footer links

Activities

Discover different activities that can help you take steps toward better mental health.

Filters

Filter by emotions, moods, and life challenges

Filters

Filter by emotions, moods, and life challenges

Clear filters

Practice Mindfulness

Taking time to practice mindfulness can help steady your thoughts and manage stress. Explore simple ways to care for your mental health.

Showing 1–8 of 8 results for “Worry" and "Practice Mindfulness”

Picture yourself at the top of your game

Care for Your Mind + Body Practice Mindfulness Focus on Positivity
Picture yourself at the top of your game

Be like Mike. He credits tapping in to the power of his mind—visualizing himself winning—to helping him become a master of basketball. And it’s is something you can try too. What’s the equivalent to making a basket, or winning a championship trophy in your life? If you picture yourself achieving this in your mind, your brain actually does the work to create a new neural pathway. In non-science speak, this means when you visualize something vividly, and repeatedly, the brain feels like you’ve actually done the thing you’ve imagined. So when the situation arises in real life, you can be calm in the moment and worry a little less about how to do the thing because you’ve already experienced it your mind.

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Try journaling

Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness
Try journaling

Write about how you’re feeling—not only what makes you happy, but also what triggers stress or pain. Experiencing a range of emotions helps regulate stress response, which can mean a healthier immune system. Journaling can also help you take action—you can identify things you want to do more or less of, identify situations you want to change or get help with, and figure out ways to deal with stress in the moment if you know what situations to look out for. While it is tempting to just use your computer, it can be more beneficial to go back to the old pen and paper. The good news is, you only need to journal a few times a week, for 10-20 minutes to get benefit.

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness Focus on Positivity

Acknowledge and avoid negative self-talk

Stress or worry might lead you to interpret situations negatively, be overly self-critical, or doubt you ability to deal with stressors. To reframe negative thoughts, avoid thinking of them as facts and consider other possibilities. Doing this over time can help reduce the negative emotional response to stress. The world is hard enough, you don't need to be hard on yourself, too.

Watch

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Reduce Stress Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness

Try the 5-4-3-2-1 relaxation and grounding technique

Relaxing can help counter a fight-or-flight stress response. The 5-4-3-2-1 technique is one approach you can try. To do this, pause for a moment to take notice of your surroundings, Ask yourself a series of questions, counting down from 5: 5) What are 5 things you can see? 4) What are 4 things you can feel? 3) What are 3 things you can hear? 2) What are 2 things you can smell? 1) What is 1 thing you can taste? This method helps you focus on your body, and grounds you in the moment.

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Reduce Stress Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness

Try the 4-7-8 relaxing breathing technique

Breathing exercises are a small but powerful way to relax and decrease stress no matter where you are. The 4-7-8 approach is one technique with powerful benefits—it can calm your mind, manage a fight-or-flight stress response, and even help you sleep better. You can feel calming effects in the moment, and when done regularly the benefits can be even greater. As you do it more often, your body will start to incorporate it automatically. Experts recommend doing three cycles twice a day to make it a habit. Follow these 3 steps to complete one cycle: 1) Inhale through your nose for 4 counts, 2) Hold your breath for 7 counts, 3) Exhale through your mouth for 8 counts.

Watch

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Try some breathing exercises

Reduce Stress Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness
Try some breathing exercises

Breathwork, or consciously controlling your breath, is easy way to relax that you can do almost anywhere, and anytime—even when other aspects of life might seem out of control. The practice has existed for thousands of years, and there are many different approaches you can experiment with. Belly breathing is a great basic you can start with, and even just noticing the quality of your breath during the day is a great way to focus inward and away from all the thoughts in your head.

Watch

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Reduce Stress Manage Anxiety & Overthinking Practice Mindfulness

Stop and observe your breath

Take a few minutes (even just 5-10) to sit in silence and focus solely on your breath as you inhale and exhale. This is a simple way to calm your mind and body and can help shift your focus to the present moment and give your mind a rest from negative thoughts. It may take some practice, so don't beat yourself up if you catch your mind wandering—noticing when this happens is actually a great sign. All you have to do is refocus and keep going, which is a skill in itself.

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Create an end-of-work day habit

Care for Your Mind + Body Practice Mindfulness
Create an end-of-work day habit

To create a clear end to the work day, try doing things like putting away your work materials, stepping away for another activity, or following away-from-work communication rules you define with your coworkers (like setting expectations you aren’t available for meetings, calls, or email replies after a certain time).

Related Emotions, Moods, & Life Challenges

Showing 1–8 of 8