There are a number of things you can do to calm yourself down. Dish washing, is one of them according to science.

Some of the things you could do include but are not limited to taking a tasty meal, taking a nap, going out for a drink, working out among others. Of course, this depends on your preferences.

However, there is one more thing which you seem to be out of the picture, dish washing. Well, it sounds weird but did you that by simply cleaning dirty dishes you keep away depression whilst staying motivated and reducing nervousness.

How does this work?

First, you have to be conscious of this kind of mental detox at work. This leads us to the concept of mindfulness borrowed from the excerpt of a Buddhist author – Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975). In simple terms, the study established that being mindful involves the act of focusing on both the internal and external details of your ongoing activities.

Mindfulness is a widely used practice during meditation where the participants confine themselves to pay attention to their sensations, feelings, and thoughts.

They can also focus on the sights or sounds present in their backgrounds. By literally focusing on the present, you get rid of and forget any kind of intrusive thought other than what you are focusing on.

Back to our dish washing case scenario and what is clear is that it adopts the same principle of mindfulness. Based on the recent journal on mindfulness, directing your all attention to the smell of the washing soap, water temperature, and the dishes, reduces your nervousness by about 37% and boosts your inspiration up to 25%. The whole dishwashing process has to be a conscious experience.

The case will be different for the participant who does the chore unconsciously. Apart from the clean dishes, the participant does not gain any therapeutic benefit.

In fact, sweeping, gardening, and other commonly known house chores seem to have the same therapeutic effect. This is subject to being proven in the near future.

The bottom line is the next time you have a burden of dirty dishes piled up in your kitchen, don’t stress yourself up. Just start doing them with the right mindset- you never know, you are bound to reap some health benefits out of the process!

References:

  1. https://link.springer.com
  2. https://news.fsu.edu

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