Stress Rings or Bead Rings To Reduce Stress – Is It Really Worth It?

They come with many names. You find them as anxiety rings, fidget rings or spinner rings, anti-stress rings, bead stacking rings, bead rings, and a few more. Regardless of the name, they all aim for the same purpose. To reduce anxiety, stress and get you calmer.

They keep your fingers busy, and that can have some calming effect, even welcoming mindfulness.

How Do Anxiety Rings & Bead Rings Work Against Stress?

These wearable rings have movable parts that you shift around, usually using another finger or your other hand.

When under stress, people tend to do repeating moves. Some tap the floor with their feet; others do things with their fingers; some twirl a pen or a pencil fast with their fingers.

Stress is bodily expressed in many ways.

A ring-like that acts as a focus item. You have something to spin around. Many times such action of focusing your attention on that helps you relax.

Either way, if you -for example- are afraid of flying with an airplane when you travel, that can be emotional support during your flight.

Have you ever noticed that when you have lots of thoughts, you can calm your mind by focusing your attention on something else? Some meditate (even meditate lying down), others focus on their breath, others on something far on the horizon or even focusing at their toes.

Also read: Top 8 Benefits of 10 Minute Meditation Every Day

Taking your attention from the “monkey mind” of the thousands of worrying thoughts provides you with a “break” from that bombardment of different things that exist in your mind at that moment. That can give you seconds of peace. Sometimes, seconds of relaxation are what you need to perceive what is happening right now.

Of course, fidget rings or stress rings are not a cure for something. They can become another thing to get attached to. Thus, it is always best to seek the causes of worrying.

They help with “taking a break” from the turbulence of thoughts. Maybe they make a small “opening in the cloudy sky” or serve as a 3rd external location to transfer your expression of worries.

For some, that happens with a fidget-type anxiety ring, while others find a soothing experience with an anti-stress bead stacking ring.

Anti-Stress Fidget Rings

The fidget rings type usually consists of 2 rings, one nested inside the other, in different designs. So, you touch the movable one and shift it around the non-movable one.

That circular movement, made with your fingers, shifts your attention to that, where -allegedly- your mind is distracted from the worrying thoughts, with calming effects.

Here are some favorite fidget rings we found in the market.

Bead Stacking Rings to Reduce Stress

Have you seen Buddhists using their bead bracelets, where they move one bead, then another, etc.? That Buddhist bracelet is called “mala.” It is used in meditation, and each bead is moved after taking a full breath (inhale and exhale). Breathing is one of the most important things, as we all know, and focusing on our breath, fully acknowledging and perceiving the air coming in and out, has a relaxing effect on us.

Bead stacking rings usually come with a ring and small movable balls on them that you can move around.

Here is an option for a bead stacking ring.

Why Are Anti-Stress, Fidget rings or Bead Rings, Popular Now?

Stress levels of people all over the world are increasing. Especially during the covid-19 epidemic (that is still in progress while this post is written), billions encountered situations mostly seen in Holywood movies.

Before that, the global economic crisis and the constantly increasing worrying about survival, earth pollution, and natural resources, along with a frantic way of living, made things more stressful than ever.

All that stress piles up and is expressed in numerous ways. People are brainwashed or are pushed into feeling guilt, insecurity, worry, and fear.

Malnutrition and anxiety-related issues constantly increase.

People need some “break” from all that constant anxiety and “tools” to make them see things in a more precise way. Such small tools can help break the “railgun” sequence of thoughts.

For example, observe a full breath and the flow of air and then move a bead. After a few breaths, that indeed makes “space” in your mind.

Conclusion on Bead Stacking and Anxiety Rings

It is not by chance that ancient wisdom answers our original question. Buddhists and Zen monks use lots of methods to break the duality of thoughts or the thought train or -as called- the monkey mind.

These tools and methods help you break from the stressful thoughts, but you do need to deal with the origin of them, and that is the natural “next step,” whatever tool you use.

People are unhappy when they are under the burdens of fear, anxiety, worry, guilt. These have a crushing effect, and we need to understand what is happening with our minds to be free from all these burdens.

Each of us seeks peace and happiness, using whatever tools we can lay our hands upon.

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