From time to time I see people that want to do things so they can relax, but they feel too guilty about doing it and they spend their “relaxation time” worrying about how many things they have to do or they could do in that time. I sometimes do that too because I’m still learning how to take control over my mind so I can have a better life, relaxation being one part of this.
In my opinion, relaxation is not an optional thing, but more likely a mandatory one. Imagine yourself as a giant meat spring and during the day, you encounter different situations you need to handle. All of them compresses you and sometimes when one problem goes away, two more appear. It might squeeze you so much you can hardly move. And this happens days, weeks, months and even years. How do you think you’d feel? I bet you’d feel tired all the time because you need a great amount of effort to get through the day with all that tension in you and in addition, you’d need extra effort to keep yourself together because each day it passes, it increases the chance for you to burst. You need that tension released somehow, right? This is the role of relaxation.
I think there are two big paths to get relaxed: we either do it mentally and this would relax our bodies too, or we do it physically and it will relax our minds too, but the key here is to get rid of the guilt first. You HAVE to get some relaxation time for you to function properly during the day and you also DESERVE it, otherwise you wouldn’t be tensioned in the first place (but you have to deserve it… I know that some people tend to have only relaxing time without actually doing some work).
The mental part is the hardest because all sorts of thoughts rush to go through in our conscious mind and that might cause anxiety, but it can be mastered in time. Meditation, movies, some time in nature, reading, writing and everything that implies the creative part in us can help with the relaxation process.
The physical part is easier to do because it requires moving your body, so dancing, working out at the gym, massage sessions, swimming, running, boxing and everything related to body movement can help the relaxation process, but you need to want to do it and to enjoy it, otherwise it can create more anxiety because you’ll perceive it as an obligation.
What do you do to release the tension?
I agree that downtime is critical to our overall well-being; exercise and blogging do it for me…
I agree that the physical is harder than the mental to relax. I get the most relaxation from working in the yard, being in nature.
I go for walks and read books to relax. It’s tough to do nothing, but I’m attempting to learn meditation.
Music , walk and sometimes I just lie doing nothing…
Meditation when I can manage it. Something about forcing myself to stop and be more self aware of mind and body helps significantly
Anything exhausting and meditative helps me relax, although I don’t always realize it at the time.
These first sentences really spoke to me !!! That’s exactly what I am experiencing today. I have a day off, I have nothing to do, and can’t find the way to relax. It makes me anxious because the only thing I can think about is the amount of things I would like to spend the day working on, and I don’t know where to start, so I end up doing nothing AND it makes me feel guilty.
However, I have found ways to help me focus on the fact that it is ok to take a day for myself.
1. Music. Playing piano helps me relax every time.
2. Go for a run. When I run, I think about nothing, and I just feel great after I am done.
3. Yoga. I recently tried for the first time, and felt so calm after.
4. Writing. Writing everything that is on my mind helps release some stress.
Thanks for this focus; gardening, singing, writing, meditating, swimming. -Rebecca
Creating – painting, beading, knitting – those things usually help. Being in nature – or watching it, because it’s too bloody hot out there for me. Watching something on TV that has no impact on my life, something that makes me laugh is good.
I meditate and induce out of body experiences. Or I read.