Want to know a secret? My mind is a hot mess a lot of the time. The end. That’s all you get to know.

Just kidding!

Some days, I swear it’s like an Internet browser: 27 tabs are open, 9 of them are not responding, there are hundreds of popups, and where the fuck is that music coming from?! Whew. Sometimes it can be exhausting, some days a major struggle to calm, but I’ve learned to control this pretty well over time. Sure, like anyone, there’s the occasional night where it keeps me up, but those days seem to be few and far between these days. In order to control it, I’ve had to figure out different ways to calm it all down, and since I’m sure I’m not the only one that struggles with this, I wanted to share what helps me:

• Exercise
  • Running has done wonders for this. You’re forced to focus on running, breathing, not tripping, and sometimes talking to a friend, so there’s no room for anything else!
  • Tennis: because what’s more soothing than smashing a tennis ball around?!
• Reading
  • I’m an obsessive reader in two ways. I’m either totally wrapped up in a book or I’m not reading at all. There is no in-between. When I need an escape, focusing on a book takes me away to a different life, someone else’s story to focus on.
• Making lists
  • When I have a lot on my mind, it all has to be written down, so I don’t have to think about it anymore. And, it’s not sufficient to have these lists on my phone. They’re all on pieces of notebook paper or post-it notes! You should see my desk at work some days…
• Puzzles
  • These have recently become an awesome outlet for me. Once I get started, I don’t want to stop until it’s done. That in and of itself can be a problem, so I set goals of how far I’m going to get before I stop. If I didn’t, I could stay up all night trying to finish it, completely losing track of time.
• Hot bath and tea [or wine]
  • I don’t think this needs an explanation. Add a book to this, and it works like a charm!
• Generalized feeling of being ‘busy’
  • If I have things to do, whether it’s around the house or running errands, it doesn’t give me time to think about things. I don’t do well when I don’t have anything to do.
• Wine
  • Wine solves everything.

If you’ve had this happen, what are ways you’ve learned to settle your mind? I’d love to hear from you!