10 Stress Toys to Help Ease Your Anxiety While Working From Home

Do you ever catch yourself fidgeting when you’re feeling anxious? When you make these small movements with your body, usually with your feet and hands, you may not even realize that you’re doing it. What you also may not be aware of is where these little nervous movements come from. Some people fidget when they’re bored or have to sit for long periods, particularly if they have anxiety or ADHD. Regardless of any present mental health struggles, when someone’s energy has nowhere to go, it can manifest as anxiety. Fortunately, stress toys are tools that help direct nervous energy.

So, what about channeling the negative energy we experience from stress? As humans, we are always surrounded by experiences that can cause stress because stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life’s situations. It has become a prevalent mental health issue over the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as most of us were transitioned to work from home with little time to adapt, struggling to find a positive work-life balance environment. Many people have struggled with losing or fear of losing a loved one, job, or business. Social distancing has meant that many have also had to deal with these fears and worries in isolation. Yet, the loneliness in and of itself has led to an increase in anxiety and depression across the globe.

We tend to forget that stress is not inherently bad; it’s meant to help us in emergent situations. But, if we don’t bounce back from that “fight or flight” mode that our stress hormones put us in, so many aspects of mental and physical health become affected. From rapid breathing, high blood pressure, weakened immune system, insomnia, headaches, and an increased risk of depression, the worse these problems become, the harder it is to manage stress, so it becomes a vicious cycle that we absolutely must be proactive about. There are many ways to help relieve stress and anxiety, and one of these ways is using stress toys. Because stress can cause fidgeting, at the same time, fidgeting can ease feelings of stress.

In addition to movements in the feet and hands, such as tapping your feet or pencil, fidgeting can also look like skin picking, leg shaking, nail-biting, and crossing and uncrossing your legs. As if fidgeting weren’t already enough of a thief of our concentration, it can also cause us to pick up our phones too often. If you are
experiencing nervous energy, stress, anxiety, or boredom during your workday or at any time, fidget toys are helpful to minimize these unwanted, unproductive, and sometimes harmful habits.