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Reduce Tension: 5 Ways to Instantly Feel Better

From a sanity-preserving stroll to a quick and easy head massage, here are five ways to calm your anxiety while weathering this election cycle….

It’s no exaggeration: This is the most important election of our lifetime. And as the results remain uncertain, many of us are feeling excruciating stress and tension in our minds and bodies alike. What to do in a state of nerves amid a chorus of “too close to calls” and President Donald Trump’s mind-numbing tweets? From a sanity-preserving stroll to a quick and easy head massage, here are five ways to calm your anxiety and reduce tension while weathering the final stretch of the election.

Go for a Sanity Walk

In lockdown, sanity walks became a lifeline for many, offering fresh air, an excuse to get moving, and most importantly, a break from internal chaos. During this tumultuous time, do not underestimate the benefits a quick stroll outside can offer, including improving mental clarity, boosting your mood, and helping release tension—particularity if you have proximity to nature. According to a recent study, walking in nature was found to reduce ruminating over negative experiences.

Do a Breathwork Exercise

Of course, at a time like this, being told to “just breathe” can feel insultingly simple. But to gather your thoughts and cleanse your mind, breathwork, an active meditation that involves guided breath, pulled in and out of the mouth for extended intervals, has been shown to reduce levels of stress hormones and soothe the nervous system. According to Los Angeles–based meditation coach Light Watkins, if you’re anxious or overwhelmed, sitting down and taking 10 deep breaths over a period of two to three minutes will create a noticeable shift in your state of consciousness.

Get Up and Stretch

Whether it’s a special yoga sequence or a mode of dynamic stretching such as foam rolling, elongating muscles in a slow, controlled manner is a robust way to reduce tension in the body. “When muscles stay contracted, fascia can lose its elasticity, leaving you feeling tight, stiff, and tired,” says Maya Jocelyn, founder of Brooklyn-based holistic health and arts center Studio Maya, adding that myofascial release increases blood flow to the muscles and gives a gentle stretch to connective tissue, which can “help you feel more open, free, and energized.”

Give Yourself a Head Massage

The best salve for a dizzying amount of push notifications? A restorative head massage. “It helps release tension that we often store in our scalp,” explains Tomoko Shima, the founder of New York City head spa Tomoko Shima Salon. “It can often be seen when people raise their eyebrows or bring their eyebrows together—this reflects the tension that we are hoping to release.” Whether it’s just with your fingertips, or with help from a scalp brush, gently kneading the scalp, temples, and neck for a few minutes can help melt away stress and tension in minutes.

Reach for a Calming Scent

Scent is highly individual, so reaching for your go-to, mood-boosting fragrance, essential oil, or scented candle is a fail-proof way to stay more calm and grounded. But if you want a science-backed strategy, look to scents with known calming properties, such as lemon and lavender, to help you get through the mounting anticipation.

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Entertainment

A$AP Rocky Turned An Entire Manchester City Kit Into His Album Rollout

A$AP Rocky at South by Southwest 2019
Photo: DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

A$AP Rocky doesn’t do album rollouts quietly, and this one recruited an entire Premier League club to help. Manchester City, PUMA, and Rocky teamed up on a limited apparel run tied to “Don’t Be Dumb,” his 2026 album, timed around his September 5th show at Co-op Live.

The centerpiece is a long-sleeve PUMA King jersey in black and archive gold, with “DON’T BE DUMB” running down the sleeve and AWGE branding worked in throughout. A bold “MANCHESTER” graphic covers the back. Fans could also add limited “A$AP 11” name-and-number printing onto the club’s actual Home, Away, or Third kits, while supplies lasted at retail.

There’s a players-only version too, and it never went up for sale. That one sticks closer to City’s usual sky-blue identity, with its own sleeve detailing and back graphic — the kind of piece that exists purely because a handful of people got lucky.

The whole rollout kicked off with a one-night pop-up on September 4th, when PUMA turned a spot in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a pop-up cafe for the night, mixing football, music, and street style into one room before the wider release hit the stadium store the next morning. Some of those jerseys even came with golden tickets to the concert or that Saturday’s match.

Rocky has called the project true to his own design language, and it’s not even his only club collaboration this cycle — a similar drop with AC Milan landed around the same time. At this point, the line between fashion week and matchday has basically disappeared.

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Entertainment

Quavo And Lids Are Going All In On Atlanta With Their New Cap Pack

Quavo photographed in 2019
Photo: Finish Line / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Quavo has never been shy about his hat obsession, and Lids just gave him another outlet for it. Their new “Atlanta” pack drops September 12th, marking another round in a partnership that’s been running strong since 2019.

The collection is a love letter to the city, spread across three very different caps. One mashes up pinstripes, script lettering, and Braves branding into a single design, working navy, red, white, and light blue into the mix. Another goes the opposite direction entirely — fully iced out in crystal detailing, done up in black and red, with both the Falcons and the Braves showing up in the design. The third strips things back to an old-school “ATL” trucker cap in red, white, and gold, the kind of understated piece that lets the city’s name do the talking.

None of this is new territory for Quavo. He’s talked before about waiting on hat releases as a kid, and that same excitement seems to be what’s kept this partnership going years past most celebrity collabs. His earlier Lids run leaned on one moment — the Braves’ 1995 World Series win — but this pack pulls from the city’s whole sports history instead of just one highlight.

Lids has called Quavo one of the rare voices who can blend music, fashion, and sports without it feeling forced, and this drop backs that up. Given how fast his past releases have moved, Atlanta might want to set an alarm for September 12th.

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