Therapeutic activities are a healthy and natural way to fight stress, anxiety and even depression.
During quarantine we are put to test and we face difficult situations that can bring us down, increasing stress and anxiety.
Fortunately, there are good practices and therapeutic activities, which help to combat stress and are revolutionary for well-being, as they relieve the mind of negative thoughts and force you to focus on something productive.
What are therapeutic activities?
For the well-being of the human being, harmony is needed in 3 states: body, mind and spirit.
When one of these states is bad or weakened, there is an imbalance that strengthens anxiety and in more extreme cases leads to depression.
In addition to a healthy lifestyle, to help balance these 3 states we must practice therapeutic activities that work in harmony with the body, mind and spirit.
Different therapeutic activities, while helping the 3 states, always focus more on a specific one. So, we must start by realizing which of our 3 states is most weakened and choose a therapeutic activity that specifically works on this problem and helps you to return to balance.
Therapeutic activities should keep the body healthy and the mind occupied with something positive and productive, so that we can feel an evolution, either through a concrete goal or through learning something new.
These therapeutic activities combine practices capable of developing the person in their entirety.

1. Painting and crafting arts
Dedicating our time to perfecting manual skills in activities such as painting, sculpture and sewing can be a good therapy for those who like to use their creativity.
These activities are very practical and require technique, which requires concentration and precision. However, they also promote creative freedom by encouraging the brain to be impulsive and expressive.
This therapeutic activity promotes more the mind and spirit but requires harmony between the 3 states, as it also envolves a physical activity, which requires great concentration.
It is important that in the chosen therapeutic activity, an objective is defined and steps are conquered because the satisfaction of achieving helps the well being and gives a sensation of pleasure.

2. Cooking
If you have never been attracted to art, another similar activity is cooking.
This therapeutic activity is very similar to art as it promotes the mind and spirit more, still remaining a physical practice. Once again, it is important to establish goals and stages and feel an evolution whenever we cook.
Cooking stimulates concentration and sometimes the precision, that is essential for some dishes. However there is plenty of room for creativity, making this activity particularly joyful and pleasing. Additionally, there is the great final pleasure of enjoying what has been prepared.
This hobby helps to disconnect from everyday problems and focus only on the moment. Seeing the evolution of food and the construction of a final dish, gives the feeling of accomplishment that often brings peace of mind.

3. Meditation
When stress is caused by the dizzying pace of everyday life, meditation is essential to maintain our sanity. Stopping, breathing and clearing the mind is very important to be able to think and enjoy the moments of everyday life.
The same goes for anxiety. When the days go by and everything is done simultaneously, we don’t enjoy the small pleasures of life, which leads to the feeling of anxiety, because we want or need something but we don’t know what. It is important to stop, sit, listen to the sound of nature and breathe.
With meditation we focus on the sounds we are hearing and in controlling the breath, breathing in and out consciously. It is important not to disperse, nor to think about the problems, only in the most basic action of the human being…which is breathing.
Meditation should never last less than 15 minutes and can be accompanied with a few body stretches, exercising and stretching each muscle and keeping the mind occupied in feeling every millimeter of our body.

4. Gardening
One of the physical activities that has the most results and is the least common is gardening.
You can practice it in a garden or even in an apartment with some pots, but the action of caring is extremely important for humans and arouses a series of interesting sensations.
Getting your hands dirty is a liberating action, specially for those who spend the day attentive to their attitude towards their co-workers. Feeling the freedom to get dirty to deal with something can be incredibly satisfying.
Additionally, gardening requires responsibility, as plants are something of value and you need to study and learn to care for them. Thus, even though it is a hobby, we now have an associated responsibility, which requires us to fulfill it regularly. Realizing that if we give up we literally see the plants dying, is a good incentive to continue. On the contrary, seeing the evolution of plants and their transformation, bearing fruit or simply growing, is a very empowering reward.
The most important thing is to be able to see, is the simplicity of life.

5. Physical exercise
Physical exercise is one of the most complete and effective therapeutic activities, creating a perfect harmony between body, mind and spirit. The evolution and constant practice of this hobby is visible in our body. During practice, we focus on the actions and think about the body, movements and sacrifice, feeling a sense of pleasure at the end.
Additionally, the practice of physical exercise releases a hormone that transmits the feeling of happiness and pleasure.
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