Cheap Forms of Entertainment at Home To Reduce Stress and Anxiety

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you might have come across this one post I published recently where I said that I’ve been having anxiety attacks lately.

I’ve had anxiety disorders for years but had it under control. This time was different though. I wasn’t aware they were anxiety attacks at first because of the physical symptoms. However, my lab tests showed that I’m perfectly fine physically and that it was just my anxiety that was wreaking havoc on my body.

Anyway, I decided I had to do something in order to relax and free my mind and body from stress. Since going out a lot is not an option due to the ongoing pandemic, I had to find some sort of entertainment at home to keep my mind off everything that was stressing me out. However, I did not want it to cost me a lot of money.

Below are some of the cheap forms of entertainment I’ve been doing at home to reduce stress and anxiety.

Read

I’ve amassed quite a lot of books on my Kindle and my bookshelf that I haven’t even started reading yet. I haven’t done a lot of reading lately and so I figured this was the right time to start getting back at it again.

I’m currently reading two homeschool books that I hope will help ease my anxieties about starting another homeschool year soon. One is Better Together by Pam Barnhill and the other is Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie.

Listen to podcasts

I’m a podcast addict. I guess to those of you who know what I do for a living (I’m a Podcast Manager), this wouldn’t come as a surprise.

I listen to a lot of podcasts about homeschooling and growing an online business. Recently, though, I discovered a podcast about anxiety that is really helping me a lot and it’s called Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast by Caroline Foran.

Play Online Games

I have a couple of game apps on my phone that I no longer use because I’ve outgrown them already. Thankfully, I recently discovered a site called Plays.org, which is a website that offers free (yes, FREE!) and fun online games which can be played quickly right from the browser. No need to download any apps! Apparently, the creator of this site started Plays.org only this year for the many people who are stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The site offers hundreds of free games across every genre including arcade classics, simulation games, education games, sports games, and so much more. I had so much fun exploring all their games and even asked my sons, Ziggy and Zander, to try the ones meant for kids their age.

I really enjoyed the Arcade Classics such as Tetra Blocks and Brick Out as well as the Open Restaurant and Tap Supermarket simulation games. Ziggy enjoyed the Tank Wars and Flight Sim ones. He’s into everything Military, Army, Navy, and Marines. Zander, on the other hand, loved the Instruments for Kids, Mickey and Minnie Universe Game, among others.

One of the best thing about Plays.org though is that it has no ads. You don’t even need to upgrade anything just to remove ads. There are no ads at all so it’s safe for kids.

Watching YouTube videos

Before I got addicted to podcasts, watching YouTube videos was my favorite form of online entertainment. I still watch every so often though, but mostly only when my favorite YouTubers release something new.

One type of video I love watching are the planner flip throughs. As you probably already know, I love planners and planning in general. I’ve also published quite a few planner flip throughs on my own YouTube channel. I just love them. I find them so therapeutic. They also inspire creativity.

Playing with my planner

And speaking of my planner, I just love playing around with it and changing things up. I did a lot of that these past few weeks. Using a planner makes me feel more in control and less anxious of my everyday life and so it’s important to me to always tweak my planning system depending on present circumstances.

Aside from the functionality of the planner though, I also like making it aesthetically pleasing. So, I also did a decor overhaul in my planner to reflect my current obsession with the moon and the stars. Just looking at my planner makes me feel more relaxed already.

So, there goes my list of things I do at home to help me be less anxious. Having an anxiety disorder is definitely not easy but engaging in activities that takes my mind off of my worries do help keep me calm.