Do It Yourself: Stress Balls

Stress is a big part of today’s society, and not one person will ever be completely “stress free.” There are many ways to relieve it ,and one of the well known ways is stress balls.

Many stress toys can be found at local stores. Even businesses hand them out with company labels on them to promote their businesses.

Human hands have many nerves in them, all of which are connected to your brain. When you squeeze the ball, the nerves in your hand get stimulated, thereby stimulating parts of your brain and triggering the release of endorphins, which combat stress, improve mood, and fight pain. Playing with a stress ball and squeezing it can help you take your mind off of whatever’s bothering you, letting your mind relax for a few minutes.

There are a couple of ways to use the stress ball for exercising the wrist, hand, and finger muscles. To improve wrist strength, you can squeeze for a count of three and release and repeat that at least 10 times.To improve finger strength, you can pinch the ball between your thumb and each finger one at a time. As a hand strengthening exercise, you can twist the stress ball in both hands. Alternate the direction of twisting to get the full benefit.

You can also make your own stress ball that is softer than foam, and might even be cheaper than purchasing one. Here’s how (if you can’t find one for free)!

Mix a cup of water with two cups of cornstarch. Stir the mixture until goopy. You should feel resistance when stirring quickly and no resistance when stirring slowly. This is as a result of the fact that the oobleck mixture is a non-newtonian fluid and turns solid when pressure or force is applied. Pour the oobleck mixture into a water bottle.  Attach the opening of a balloon to the top of the water bottle. Flip over and squeeze the contents into the balloon until full. Taking care not to let any air bubbles get into the balloon, take the balloon off and tie it in a knot. Take another balloon and  cut the end off. Wrap this over the filled balloon to cover up the knot.  Overlap it with tape to make it stronger.