Headphones, Stickers, and Pinterest

Written by: Irene Sung

Escape the reality of long days of slouching, gallons of coffee, and irritable headaches. Grab your headphones, sticker sheets, and open Pinterest because you’re about experience the feeling of pure relaxation


Nothing compares to the soothing feeling of immense back pain from slouching over your desk and wanting to cry yourself to sleep … said no one ever. Rather than wallow in your suffering, I am here to prescribe 100 milliliters of get up and forget everything that happened today. While watching your favorite show accompanied by a tasty snack helps, sometimes it is not enough. If you are looking for new and creative ways to de-stress, look no further. 

Let’s start with an activity that is accessible to everyone, listening to music. Blasting music through your headphones seems obvious, but it is more than that. First, slip on your headphones. Next, pick an all-time favorite artist or song, maybe one that you might sing at a karaoke night. My go-to song is anything from “Between Friends”, an alternative/indie band that creates relaxed, soothing beats and beautiful melodies. I highly recommend giving them a listen. Now, get comfy. Close your eyes, and imagine yourself in your happiest moments, real or imaginative. Next, just sit, listen, and forget about the real world. If you are having trouble relaxing, listen to different underlying beats and harmonies.  

Do you hate the feeling of no control when your mind is racing with thoughts? Well, me too. The perfect way to interrupt your non-stop overthinking and mentally draining thoughts is by listening to someone else speak about something unrelated. More specifically, intense storylines, like juicy celebrity dramas or horrifying true crime stories, that require your full attention. Listening to a podcast is a great way to clear your mind of mentally draining thoughts.   

Here is a list of my frequently listened-to podcasts that could easily distract you:   

  1. If you love true crime, “Rotten Mango” and “Murder with My Husband” are podcasts narrated by husband-and-wife duos. The couples go beyond storytelling by detailing famous and not-so-famous true crime stories, with an open discussion surrounding why a person commits a heinous crime.   

  2. If murder and death don’t relax you, a lifestyle and advice podcast is a great alternative. My top picks are: “Pretty Basic,” “Anything Goes,” and “Call Her Daddy.” All three podcasts provide an outsider’s perspective of the many hardships faced in your youth. “Pretty Basic” and “Call Her Daddy” interview well-known influencers and celebrities about their personal and professional lives. If you listen to any of the three, you will find great advice about friendships, relationships, and life.  

Need some visual inspiration? Open Pinterest and look up keywords of interest to you. Think to yourself: What do I see for myself in the future? Think about how to manifest this through pictures. Look through every image on that page and add them to a Pinterest vision board. This method of de-stressing motivates you to visualize what might be possible. If dreaming is not your thing, use Pinterest to find recipes, outfits, and decor of interest. Look up potential recipes, explore your limits as a cook, and discover new foods from different cultures. Reimagine your wardrobe by looking for candid pictures of trending celebrities and develop a sense of how you want to change your look.  

My absolute favorite method of de-stressing is sitting at my desk with my headphones, grabbing a chocolate-filled snack, and starting up a thrilling game of Overwatch 2. Video games are a classic way to forget about the 10-page paper due in 3 days that you have yet to start. I played hundreds of games and quickly became bored with the ones that lacked excitement. Below are my top picks for games to get lost in a series of rage, thrill, and joy.    

App Games   

  • In Sneaky Sasquatch, you play as a sasquatch living on a campground. Your job is to sneak around campers and not get caught by the police. The best part is that you can disguise yourself as a person, which makes sneaking around much more exciting!   

  • Bloons TD6 is a strategic balloon-popping game where you play as a monkey and curate a squad of special monkeys to pop all the balloons coming your way. The game is addicting and becomes super-fast-paced when you level up.   

  • Good Pizza Great Pizza is an indie game where you work as the store owner of a pizzeria to make pizzas for customers, complete seasonal storylines, and decorate your store to your liking! The aesthetics are unlike any cooking game, and the characters make you love the game even more.

    PC/Console Games

  • The popular game Overwatch has recently come out with a sequel, and it is even more exciting! This game is a first-person shooter with exciting dynamics. Rounds are fast-paced, and there are many characters with different skill sets for you to learn and play.   

  • Trine 4 is a three-player strategic puzzle game and is the best when you want to exercise your mind. Your goal is to move through fairytale-like landscapes to save the world from evil creatures.    

  • Fall Guys is a battle royale game where you compete in different mini games against players. The cute and bright aesthetic makes the game visually pleasing, and the unusual movement of characters gives players a challenge.   

De-stressing through journaling goes beyond capturing the events of each day but also functions as a time capsule, capturing the joyous moments in your life. Music, TV shows, movies, artists, food, restaurants, friends, memories, etc.; you can journal anything and talk about it in a few short sentences. The purpose of this journal is to document the things you love and are passionate about creatively. Page layouts can look like a list of things accompanied by reasons why you like or dislike a thing. It can also be one page with a dedicated description detailing your emotions about the subject. I enjoy journaling because it is like freezing only my happiest memories and passions into one place. It is also an outlet to talk to my future self about why I was so obsessed with a random TV show like “Dynasty” or “Baking Impossible” that I found scrolling through Netflix one night.  

Creative relaxation is one of the best ways to calm yourself after a hard day. This can be anything from painting, drawing, or anything artistic. But my preferred method is to tap into my inner child with stickers. With this de-stressor, you use stickers to decorate anything of your choice. Moving away from the peak pandemic era of VSCO girl stickers, find small sticker sheets of animals dressed in cute fairy and angel outfits for this activity. The trick is to take advantage of your object and strategically place each sticker. For example, place stickers around the center logo if you want to decorate the front of your laptop. Make one big sticker the centerpiece and create a story around it. Then, add smaller stickers around larger pieces to fill up the space. You can even use the square shape of your laptop to your advantage by placing stickers on the edges. Play with the orientation and think about combinations that complement one another. 

Painting is great, but sometimes it is discouraging to set up all your supplies, especially if you need a dedicated workspace. Also, the aftermath requires lots of cleaning and potentially ruining expensive clothes or furniture. An alternative to traditional painting is painting with jewels! They usually come in a kit that contains everything you need to complete your artwork, so there is no need to purchase added materials. Clear a small space on a desk and take out the jewel kit. With jewel painting, you will get the satisfying release of creativity and the pleasing ASMR sound of the sticky glue pen working with each jewel. The result is a beautiful image that looks professionally done. 

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