#1
The original thread appeared a little less than two weeks ago in the AskReddit community, where the topic starter, the user u/Radiant-Assumption53, asked people the question: "What's something that isn't therapy, but feels like therapy?"
Apparently, the author touched a nerve with netizens - because today the thread has over 8.1K upvotes and almost 10K various comments. The discussion turned out to be lively - a great opportunity to get acquainted with the most popular ideas.
#5
It’s quite interesting that the simplest things often turn out to be the most effective in improving your mental health. Just walking in the forest or along the seashore, reading interesting books, hugging your loved ones, petting your cat or dog - all this really helps. However, it’s important that what you do really brings you pleasure. For example, many people love doing chores - so why not do it as a kind of therapy?
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#9
"It is a well-known fact that the famous writer Agatha Christie came up with a significant part of her detective plots and stories while washing dishes manually in the sink," says Maria Kryvosheeva, a psycholgost and NLP coach, with whom Bored Panda got in touch with for a comment here. "She simply distracted herself from everyday life in this way, and could think over ideas for her books."
"This actually perfectly illustrates how such mechanisms work. Simple, familiar things give us the opportunity to clear our heads and get a share of dopamine, ‘the pleasure hormone.’ And regular repetition of this gradually smoothes out almost any wounds in the soul. Of course, all this will not replace therapy, but as an addition to it, it's nothing but great and useful."
#10
On a similar thread, once he is asleep and my wife is asleep and I have cleaned the kitchen and reset the house for the next day, I feel like I'm crossing some kind of finish line.
#11
"Basically, any thing, any hobby that brings you pleasure, that allows you to detach yourself from painful memories, life problems, and experiences, makes you focus on more pleasant things - it's a kind of therapy. And, combined with a real therapy with a doctor, it could actually bring great results," Maria concludes. In fact, many things in our lives can trigger a surge of dopamine.
"Dopamine is most notably involved in helping us feel pleasure as part of the brain's reward system. [Intimacy], shopping, smelling cookies baking in the oven - all these things can trigger dopamine release, or a ‘dopamine rush,’" says Stephanie Watson, former Executive Editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. And dopamine is the first step to healing from a lot of mental anguish.
#15
I believe you yourself have often encountered a situation when some simple everyday things work as a salvation from various mental issues, so if you have something that allows you to relax (and is not listed in this selection of ours), then please feel free to share it in the comments below. And of course, make sure to scroll this list to the very end - after all, maybe you could find something in there that's wholesome for you too.
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