what calms you

I find reading is the best. Getting absorbed in a good book always calms me.
If I find I can't sleep in the early hours I take a walk in my mind through a place where I used to live. Walking around each room remembering what it looked like, where the furniture was, etc.
As I've lived in many places during my life I don't run out of those memories.

Quick fixes: Dressing gown morning (like Grapefruitpip), listening to Brian Eno's first track on Music for Airports (immediate transportation to calm place), looking at art books (esp. Matisse ).

Deeper restoration: Cheap first class rail ticket to London, lunch out with son, afternoon at Tate Modern, walk along the Embankment.

Next time, might also invite myself to GabriellaG54 for some of those delicious-sounding cakes and buns.

Colouring. Time goes really fast and I feel so calm. You don't need any artistic talent and there are closed groups on Facebook you can join with like-minded, kind people that encourage you. I suffer from Anxiety and it really helps.

I love calming, relaxing smells (as opposed to other odours!!). I try always to have a reed diffuser for each season. Currently I've got an M&S Christmas one and I'm very pleased with it. Much cheaper than most too. After Christmas I like a Hyacinth one. Rose for summertime etc.
Good ones can fill the place with such pleasing scents that it's a pleasure to arrive home. Its the little things!

Watching wildlife, whether in reality or on television, calms me down and helps get things in perspective.

Catsmother - my mother would do that too!

I miss it. My husband can;t cope with anything being moved so I live with furniture in the same place. I'd love a change from time to time.

I knit, paint and to get to sleep I sometimes think about what I am going to wear the next day. Just mentally going through my wardrobe seems to be very relaxing somehow. I also walk and watch birds. And cooking can be relaxing too.

I created a Circle of Peace. It took a while. I put my hands up palm out and gradually pushed stress mentally away. It took a while. Eventually the stress was beyond my finger tips.. I had my circle of peace. I do this regularly in my mind when I can't use my hands...at work being an example.

I’m a quilter... so I go into my sewing room , put radio on and get lost in my stitching?

My mum always used to move the furniture around when she was feeling stressed we would come home from school and everything was changed round, I guess everyone has their own way of coping.

I watch old episodes of QI. I love the questions on pointless trivia, answered by clever comedians and the calming tones of Stephen Fry. Love Sandi Toksvig but she hasn't got the voice.

Cycling even in rain, wind and snow it’s my favourite place to be especially reservoirs cycling around them. I hate going home.

I love jigsaws, and fortunately our library, where I volunteer, has an endless supply which I am encouraged to borrow. I introduced my Mum to patchwork when she was caring for my Dad: she found it so soothing, and if she couldn't sleep, would pop down and add a square or two to the quilt she was making.

I've just come across this on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdQsv65jtc

'Out of Town' theme tune.

Took me right back and so calming

A walk in the fresh air.

Music
A good book
Deep breathes
Rescue Remedy!

Having 24 hours without a family alarm
The DGSs being well
DS being able to sleep

jura what is hang music please?

Me too gfp?
SirChenjin quite bravly brings medication into the conversation

Walk in the countryside.
Swim in lake,
Tai-chi moves.
Hang music by a great friend.

I find jigsaws calming too. Apart from the 3D one I’m currently struggling with, which is having the opposite effect.

I’m even happier with the puzzling now I’m passing the finished ones on to our local church for their jigsaw festival. It seemed like a bit of a waste of time before.

That's funny Greta, my 22 year old AS is the same! Must be something in it.

My husband had a stressful job and when he retired he started doing jig-saw puzzles. At first I wasn't very interested but after a while I added a piece here and there. Now I actually find it a very calming activity. I buy the puzzles from charity shops and when I've finished I return them.

spinning, the sound of my foot on the pedal and the whirr of the bobbin

if I start a thread on being nervous about swimming ( for example) , what is the point of somebody contributing their time for swimming the channel?