Calming Activities for Each Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

I don’t know about you, but to me life feels like a slow-motion avalanche lately. You open the news, and it’s all crumbling economies, melting ice caps, and the general sense that we’re one bad tweet away from societal collapse. But even in the chaos, there are ways to calm your mind—and your personality type can guide you there.

I’m writing this for you as much as for me. My stress-levels have been ridiculously high lately and I frequently have to faceplant myself into my bed to get my breathing to actually, you know….breathe.

With that in mind, here are some ways to de-stress that I brainstormed. I tried to think of how each personality type would feel calmer, less anxious, and less overwhelmed in a world where it seems like the floor can be pulled out from under you at any minute. What that looks like for an ENFP is pretty different for an ISTJ (as you can imagine). Let’s get started!

Not sure what your personality type is? Take our new personality questionnaire here. Or you can take the official MBTI® here.

Calming Activities for Each Myers-Briggs® Personality Type

The ENFP

“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”
― Bram Stoker

Your flow state is focused on generating ideas, trying new things, and exploring novel concepts. You’re wired for possibility, meaning, and momentum—which is inspiring, but not exactly relaxing. I know so many ENFPs who stay up at night, unable to sleep, because their mind is going a million miles an hour. When stress builds, you might try to outrun it with new projects or impulsive inspiration. Frustratingly, that doesn’t always help. Instead, try engaging your senses while letting your mind wander—on your terms.

Try this:

• 🛁 Soak in a bath while reading a fantasy novel that completely derails reality. Bonus points for candles or bath bombs named things like Moon Fog or Elf Dreams.

• 🎶 Put on your favorite playlist and create an inspiration board. Include places you want to go, people you love, quotes that make your stomach flutter.

• 🌿 Take a walk in nature—real or virtual. If you’re stuck indoors, do a home workout with upbeat music.

• 🧘‍♀️ Meditate for 5–10 minutes. Then immediately brainstorm something. The pause helps you tap into a richer, calmer creativity.

Read This Next: The ENFP Ne-Te Loop: What It Is and How to Cope

The ENTP

“My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.”― Mizuta Masahide

A possibility-seeker at heart,you need a sense of freedom and creativity to feel calm. Rest isn’t your default setting. You chase ideas like a crow chases shiny things—relentlessly, and often at 3 AM. But when your brain’s running at 200 tabs open and none are loading, you need something that grounds you without putting you in a sensory deprivation chamber of boredom.

Try this:

• 🎧 Take an intuitive drive with no destination. Snap photos. Listen to a weird podcast. Let serendipity lead.

• 💡 Do a short workout followed by a hot shower. Then brainstorm five creative solutions to a current problem while your brain is buzzed with endorphins.

• 🛌 Close your eyes, place a hand on your stomach, and focus on your breath for 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This will help your system reboot.

• 📱 Play a short strategy game or puzzle—something that’s mentally engaging but low-stakes.

Read This Next: 10 Must-Read Books for ENTPs

The INFP

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
― Maya Angelou

Creative and introspective, you’re someone who relaxes when you know you’re living in alignment with your personal values. When anything feels “off” or you feel unsure whether you’re truly living your purpose you can feel like you’re suffocating. You need to feel like everything you’re doing is deeply, truly “you,” and not an auto-pilot response to the world. When things get hard, you seek meaning, beauty, and authenticity—but your heart can fray from overstimulation. Calm for you is about emotional realignment and reconnecting to your personal values.

Try this:

• ✂️ Make a collage of images and quotes that feel like you. Listen to quiet music while you cut, paste, or draw without pressure.

• 🎨 Let music guide your hands. Play a song you love and draw how it feels—no agenda, no expectations. Just movement and expression.

• 🛁 Soak in a bath with a novel that helps you feel seen. Add a candle or two. Let your body feel safe while your soul recharges.

• 🌬️ Try a short meditation or journaling session where you write without editing yourself.

Read This Next: A Look Inside the INFP Mind

The INTP

“No matter how bleak or menacing a situation may appear, it does not entirely own us. It can’t take away our freedom to respond, our power to take action.”
― Ryder Carroll

Your mind is extremely busy. Every INTP I know has about a dozen theories or hypotheses scrambling through their brain at any given moment. Your brain is made for puzzles, abstract connections, and existential rabbit holes. But during times of stress, that ship can spin out—caught in overthinking, inertia, or total sensory disconnection. Calm isn’t about turning your brain off—it’s about tuning it to a quieter frequency.

Try this:

• 🚗 Take a solo drive while listening to a podcast that tickles your brain without frying it.

• 🧘‍♂️ Set reminders every few hours to do one minute of deep breathing. It won’t kill your flow—but it might save your nervous system.

• 📵 Schedule micro-breaks from screens. Sit by a window. Let your brain wander without input. See what it finds when it’s not being bombarded.

• 🛁 Soak in a hot bath with a logic puzzle app or audiobook. Yes, you’re allowed to relax and stimulate your mind.

Read This Next: 21 Hobbies That INTPs Love

The ENFJ

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” —Hermann Hesse

Visionary and outgoing, people count on you to inspire them and feel their feelings with all the intensity that they do. You’re a mentor and inspirer for everyone else—but when your own internal weather turns stormy, you can forget you can mentor and inspire yourself. Your instinct is to fix, to reach out, to connect… but sometimes the person who needs connection most is you.

Try this:

• ☕ Schedule a video chat with a trusted friend and play the “deep questions” game. Bonus: make a comforting drink and wear your favorite hoodie.

• 🖍️ Map out your heart. Literally. Draw a big heart and divide it into sections filled with things you love, value, or dream of. Color it in and keep it close.

• 🧘‍♀️ Give yourself permission to do nothing for a bit. Silence your phone, rest in quiet, and jot down thoughts as they float in.

• 🚿 Follow meditation or yoga with a long shower and hydration. Let the steam and stillness remind you that you’re allowed to just be.

The ENTJ

“On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sail and begin.”
― Gregory S. Williams

Goal-oriented and ambitious, you’re someone who likes to always be on the go. Your default setting is “strategize, execute, dominate.” But stress short-circuits that focus, replacing it with irritation, micromanaging, or a restless kind of inertia. You need to choose rest like it’s a goal as important as the numbers on your Excel sheet.

Try this:

• 🌬️ Take five minutes and do nothing but breathe—slowly, deeply, like your brain is a locked safe and the air is the key.

• 🧠 Meditate for 20 minutes. If your brain calls it “a waste of time,” remind it this is ROI for your nervous system.

• 🧾 Audit your daily systems. Can anything be automated or outsourced? Streamlining can bring surprising peace.

• 💪 Do a short, intense home workout. Then shower like it’s a spa experience—candles, music, eucalyptus, the works.

The INFJ

“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” —James Carroll

Insightful and contemplative, you relax when you can tune out the noise of the world around you and focus on the overall meaning of life and anything profound or beautiful. Your intuition absorbs the world like a sponge. You notice meanings under the surface, moods no one mentions, futures no one else sees. And when you’re overloaded? You ghost. Internally or externally. What you need is a sacred pocket of peace—just for you.

Please, INFJs…prioritize yourself. The number of times I’ve spoken with INFJs who put themselves last out of habit is insane. You can’t live out your vision and purpose when you’re running on fumes.

Try this:

• 🙏 Meditate or pray in silence. Even ten minutes can reset your nervous system and reconnect you to your deeper insight.

• ✍️ Sit with a notebook and let your mind wander. Write down images, thoughts, or fragments—whatever shows up. Don’t analyze it yet.

• 🧸 Create a cozy sanctuary: blankets, soft lights, quiet music, warm drinks, maybe your favorite quote taped to the wall.

• 📓 Journal what’s in your heart, unfiltered. Let the page hold what your mouth can’t say.

Read This Next: 3 Weird and Wonderful Secrets About the INFJ Personality Type

The INTJ

“It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.”
― Bob Richards

Intellectual and independent, you thrive when you can have the freedom to explore ideas and insights. You’re built to predict and plan, but when the world turns unpredictable, your system short-circuits. You don’t need someone to tell you to “relax”—you need mental clarity and a sense that your time still has meaning. Stillness with purpose is your key to calm.

Try this:

• 🖼️ Seek out symbols that stir something in you. Explore an art museum or dig into ancient myths—anything layered with meaning.

• 🔌 Unplug. Let your thoughts breathe. Sit in quiet and see what ideas emerge when the signal noise fades.

• 🗃️ Organize something: your desk, your files, your cables. Order calms chaos. Systems give you oxygen.

• 🧽 Clean your devices. Wipe the screens, clean the keyboards. It’s oddly meditative—and weirdly satisfying.

• 🌬️ Practice focused breathing. Even a few slow, deliberate breaths can recalibrate your inner compass.

Read This Next: Your INTJ Personality Type and Your Enneagram Type

The ESFP

“Simply let experience take place very freely, so that your open heart is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion.” —Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Gregarious and energetic, you’re someone who likes to keep busy and experience the world around you. You’re wired to live in the moment—with intensity, movement, and connection. Stillness, when forced, can feel like a punishment. But when stress builds, you don’t need to shut down—you just need to shift gears to something sensory, satisfying, and soul-soothing.

Try this:

• 🛁 Take a sensory bath: candles, music, something delicious to sip. Soak in the beauty of it all like your bathtub is a five-star retreat.

• 🎧 Go for a nature walk with your favorite playlist or audiobook. Let your senses feast on sounds, smells, and movement.

• 🎨 Put on music and paint, draw, or color whatever comes to mind. Don’t aim for perfection—just expression.

• 🧘 Try five minutes of meditation or breathwork. Just enough to ground you, not enough to bore you.

The ESTP

“Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.” —Mikhail Lermontov

Action-oriented and fun-loving, you’re someone who thrives on a busy, adventure-filled schedule. Yet sometimes all the commotion and busy-ness in your life can leave you feeling hyperactive and restless. That said, stillness can feel like being stuck in traffic. But burnout doesn’t care how fast you want to go. When your inner motor is running too hot, you need something that grounds your energy without shutting you down.

Try this:

• 🏃 Do a solo workout—anything that gets your body moving. Let your brain ride the endorphin wave to clarity.

• 🌍 Give yourself novelty: play a high-immersion video game, call an old friend, try a new kind of takeout. Change of pace, change of mood.

• 🚿 Alternate hot and cold showers—two minutes hot, one minute cold. Repeat. It calms the nervous system and feels surprisingly epic.

• 🎲 Play a fast-paced, strategic board game. Something that sharpens your brain but doesn’t tether you to your phone.

The ISFP

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life—no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creativity and introspection are areas where you truly shine. You enjoy a peaceful, serene life where you can live according to your convictions and make a real difference in the lives of the people that you love. When stress hits, you might retreat or feel quietly overwhelmed. Calm for you isn’t about zoning out—it’s about coming back into harmony.

Try this:

• 🐾 Spend time with a pet. No phones, no distractions—just quiet companionship and unconditional love.

• 🖌️ Create art to match your emotions. Let the music play, and let your hand move. No rules, no goal—just go with the flow.

• 🌬️ Practice deep, belly-centered breathing. Slow, intentional inhales and exhales. It resets your body when words won’t work.

• 🌿 Go outside. Sit under a tree, touch the earth, listen to birds. Nature doesn’t rush, and neither should you.

The ISTP

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” —James Allen

Independent and hands-on, you like solving problems quietly while everyone else panics. But stress can hit you sideways—suddenly you’re restless, irritable, or just done with people. What helps most is physical focus, low-key novelty, and zero emotional pressure.

Try this:

• 🙃 Get your head below your heart. Hang upside down over a bed or bend forward. It regulates your nervous system and weirdly… works.

• 🧠 Distract your brain with a logic puzzle, Rubik’s cube, or trivia app. Just enough stimulation to stop the mental static.

• 🧹 Sort something: your tool kit, files, a drawer. Cleaning + autonomy = instant calm.

• 🎧 Listen to music while fixing or tweaking something. Repair. Tinker. Rearrange. Let your hands restore order.

The ESFJ

“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” —Ralph H. Blum

You’re happiest when your people are thriving. You’re the comfort-bringer, the celebrator, the one who remembers everyone’s birthday and makes sure their specific individual quirks are honored in the gifts you bring them. But when you’re stressed, all that giving can leave your tank dangerously empty. You need a soft place to land—and permission to make yourself the priority.

Try this:

• 🍿 Watch a romantic comedy or nostalgic favorite. Laughter + warm fuzzies = nervous system reset.

• ☎️ Call a trusted friend and vent. Don’t solve anything. Just be heard.

• 🛁 Take a cozy bath or shower with essential oils and soft music. Follow with a warm drink and your coziest socks.

• 🐶 Cuddle with a pet. Let them remind you how loved you are—even when you’re not being useful.

The ESTJ

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Confucius

Hard-working and pragmatic, you like putting every minute of your time to good use. Connecting with friends and family is also a mood-booster for you. But sometimes when you’re stressed or anxious, you feel listless and uncharacteristically uncertain. Here are some activities that can help you feel calmer:

• 🌿 Bring nature inside. Open a window, add some greenery, or play nature sounds while you tidy up. A little beauty goes a long way.

• 😌 Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Five-second inhale, five-second exhale. Let your shoulders drop with each breath.

• 🧠 Play a logic-based game (Sudoku, crosswords, etc.) to shift from stress response to focused calm.

• 🧺 Organize something small—a drawer, your planner, your inbox. Regaining control over one thing helps restore order in your mind.

The ISFJ

“You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” —Pema Chodron

Grounded and gentle, you’re someone who feels best when you have a stable routine and a sense of certainty in life. When life gets chaotic or the future seems uncertain, you can become anxious and jittery. What you need is familiarity, comfort, and quiet space to exhale.

Try this:

• 🙏 Take five minutes to pray, meditate, or visualize a peaceful place. Bonus: soft lighting and a blanket.

• ✂️ Create a “feel-good” collage or scrapbook of comforting quotes, memories, or future hopes. Surround yourself with the things that make you smile.

• 🧴 Massage your scalp and temples with gentle, circular motions. You’ll be surprised how much tension you’re holding there.

• 📓 Journal your worries and then write down three things you’re grateful for. It helps re-center your focus and reduce anxiety.

The ISTJ

“Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you are going to do right now, and do it. Today is your lucky day.”
― Will Durant

You’re dependable, organized, and prepared—for everything except feeling emotionally overwhelmed. When life turns chaotic, your instinct is to power through. But sometimes, the best way to regain control is to pause, recalibrate, and restore a sense of inner order.

Try this:

• 🧠 Stimulate your brain with something structured—Sudoku, logic puzzles, a memory game. A little focus helps shift out of anxiety.

• 🙆‍♂️ Do some light stretching, especially for your back and shoulders. Movement helps release tension that builds up while you’re “holding it all together.”

• 😴 Take a nap or short rest. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and visualize your favorite calm place.

• 🗂️ Organize something small and achievable—your desktop, junk drawer, or to-do list. It’s grounding. It reminds you: you can create calm.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this article? Do you have any insights or suggestions to share? Let us know in the comments!

Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer. You can also connect with me via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!