I dunno about the rest of you, but I have some activities that I find incredibly soothing. Not stims (though I have those too), but just activities I find comforting.
One of the most comforting things for me is puzzles of all sorts. My favorite is probably a puzzle I myself came up with--I call it a "reverse crossword," and all it requires is a sheet of graph paper and a pencil. (NOT a pen--you want to be able to erase!) Basically, I give myself a theme and see how many words/short phrases I can come up with that fit that theme...but they have to fit on the paper, either horizontally or vertically, and they have to intersect with other words. Like a crossword, but in reverse...hence the name.
Here's an example, the theme being HS characters:
Puzzles in general are soothing for me, though. I love the tile puzzle thing in Pokemon, for instance.
I also get a real sense of calm from organizing random things. For instance, I like "un-shuffling" my collection of tarot decks--putting the cards back in order.
So does anyone else have an activity that soothes them?
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"We were once so close to Heaven; Peter came out and gave us medals, declaring us the nicest of the damned."
~They Might Be Giants, "Road Movie To Berlin"