Hi friends! I don’t know if your life is anything like mine, but I homeschool two young boys and often feel overstimulated. Maybe your overstimulation comes from a 9-5 job where the demands and the emails are endless or you live in a city that is complete with never ending traffic sounds and noise. Whatever your reason for feeling overstimulated, this is what I’ve currently been doing when I need to reset. Hope it helps!
1. Take a meal outdoors, sit down somewhere where your feet can touch the warm earth, feel the sun on your bare skin, and wear a hat.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m an earth sign (Capricorn), but I just feel the most wonderful touching the warm earth. Warm grass on a full sun kind of day is my fav. Grounding/earthing has shown to have health benefits!
Many people say earthing helps them:
- Feel calmer or less stressed
- Sleep better
- Feel more connected to nature
- Reduce muscle soreness after activity
- Some small studies have reported improvements in sleep, perceived stress, pain, or recovery.
Sunshine also has so many benefits! It has way more research to back it up, and yet we take it for granted!
Vitamin D Production
Sunlight, specifically UVB radiation, helps your skin produce vitamin D, which is important for:
- Bone health
- Muscle function
- Immune system function
- Calcium absorption
Circadian Rhythm Regulation
Morning sunlight is one of the strongest signals that sets your internal clock.
Benefits include:
- Better sleep quality
- Easier time falling asleep at night
- Improved daytime alertness
- More stable energy levels
Mood and Mental Health
Sunlight exposure is associated with:
- Increased serotonin activity, which can support mood
- Reduced risk of seasonal mood changes in some people
- Improved feelings of well-being and alertness
Eye Health and Development
For children especially, time spent outdoors in natural light is associated with a lower risk of developing nearsightedness (myopia).
Physical Activity and Overall Health
People who spend time outdoors often:
- Move more
- Exercise more consistently
- Experience lower stress levels
- Report greater life satisfaction
2. Go to the library and physically flip through beautiful magazines
Since I am addicted to my phone, it feels really good to put down a hard screen and physically rifle through the pages on magazines. Have you done this lately? It feels so luxurious to have such a big piece of colorful paper replace a tiny screen. It felt good to turn physical pages instead of scroll a hard screen. It felt good to have a visually stimulating activity that was not also audibly stimulating.
3. Shut the door in a quiet room in our home, turn off the overhead lights and opt for dim lights, sit on a bed full of fluffy pillows, wear my noise cancelling headphones, and spend time praying, counting my blessings, and reading the Bible
This is the most restorative of all my suggestions. I swear by these noise cancelling headphones. They were the top inexpensive choice in the Consumer Reports Magazine.
Have you ever tried to pray in a noisy room? It is nearly impossible. My favorite way to pray is to get away from everyone, shut the door, make it as quiet as possible (hence the noise cancelling headphones), as cozy as possible (hence no overhead lights and just dim lamps), and write my prayers out. What can I say? I’m a writer through and through. I’ve tried speaking my prayers out loud. It felt very unnatural. I’ve tried praying in my thoughts, but I often got distracted. Learning that writing my prayers is my most natural way to commune with God has been game changing in my spiritual walk and has allowed me to prayer consistently every day for decades, as long as I can remember! I have thousands of prayers saved, and I’ve used more than one app for this. The previous app was discontinued. I now use this app and love it-
I start each of my prayers with thanksgiving and gratitude, and sometimes I use the prompt they offer. What I love about this app is that you can search all your previous entries!
Also, I love to read a Bible plan on this app-
If I’m on a sabbath, I’ll read a plan about rest. If I’m working, I’ll read a plan about hard work or entrepreneurship etc. I find plans based on what I’m currently going through. Currently I am on this plan, and I’m enjoying it-
Well that’s it! Those are the three things that currently help me reset when I’m feeling overstimulated. How about you? What do you do? I’d love to know!