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Relaxing is hard with anxiety. Even when I am trying to relax my muscles feel tense for seemingly no reason. It’s exhausting. However, there are a lot of activities and ways to take my mind off of the stress and just chill for a bit. I know there are probably better ways to manage anxiety, but there’s nothing wrong with just allowing myself to be distracted for a bit.

Whenever my anxiety is very high, I find that certain songs are very calming for me, like “Carry Me” by Eurielle or “Battlefield” by Svcrina. Sometimes just listening to those on repeat or even just singing them helps. It’s something about the vocals mixed with the soft melody that helps. I most listen to New Age music when I’m trying to fall asleep. When I was a kid, my parents would play Enya and now I listen to her and some calming instrumentals or similar artists. Even though my turtle’s water filter sort of provides white noise, or even the fan and window unit in the summer, I still like having my music to fall asleep.

Sometimes singing or dancing helps me feel better when my anxiety is high. Though, I mostly just enjoy laughing. Markiplier, Bob, and Wade, tend to make me laugh a lot. I usually watch their videos on Mark’s channel but I recently decided to listen to their podcast, Distractible. It’s a lot of fun to just listen to them be themselves and make each other laugh. Like in the name, it is very distracting. I also enjoy just playing mobile games or drawing while I listen to keep my hands busy.

On particularly bad days, my girlfriend and I like to sit down with dinner and watch movies or a show together. I recently got her to watch “Avatar the Last Airbender” with me for the first time and I can confirm I successfully converted another nerd to the dark side. Hanging out in the living room watching TV while either playing on my phone or on my laptop or whatever is the best way to just forget about the rest of the world and dive into a new one. I love spending time with my girlfriend even when it’s just relaxing on the couch with her.