THE ART OF RELAXING
Like so many of us, I look at the new year as an opportunity to make positive changes in my life. I don’t want to call these changes” New Year’s resolutions” because there lies the stigma of fickle and accepted failure. Nope. I’d rather call them “Better life choices.” At the top of my list is my primary target: learning how to relax! It sounds silly when I say it out loud, but I believe it is a valid quest. I am sure I am not alone in my desire to achieve a true escape from life’s burdens. A means to step off the treadmill, if only a momentary furlough to reboot and refresh. Some of my friends and family have told me I need to learn to unwind. They find my pace maddening and actually scold me for not incorporating more chill time into my life. Much of this is, of course, self-imposed. My brain often seems unable to turn off. I’m constantly thinking about what I need to accomplish today, then what I did accomplish, and of course, the thousands of other things I feel I want to achieve. I call it being “Driven,” and they call it “Insanity”! “Since I’m a big advocate for balance in life, and have preached it to others, I suppose it’s time I practiced what I preach. There is a residual guilt that I feel when “Doing Nothing,” and I find it difficult to shake. I try to have patience and understand that things will get done; they always do. Accepting that doing nothing can be healthy and, in the long run, a benefit to being productive. There it is again…” Balance.” Just as a body builder needs downtime between workouts to allow muscles to heal and strengthen, we need the same in our lives.
The reasons many of us find it challenging to relax are not all self-imposed. Life, as it is, is full of hardships and challenges beyond our control. In many cases, our sole control is how we deal with what life throws at us. We are bombarded with news and information like never before—dramas and crises in our backyards and on the other side of the globe. It is hard to shake concerns over the rising costs of almost everything in life. I sit down to watch television…an attempt at relaxing, and am frustrated when a streaming app. wants more money to “upgrade” my subscription, or I’m stuck with 2-3 minutes of commercials every ten minutes. Or wait, better yet, the show everyone is telling me I have to watch is on an app I don’t have. Is it just me!? Am I the only one who finds this maddening? Okay… take a breath and relax…well, that’s what I’m trying to do!
So I’m thinking… maybe Yoga, Tai chi, or meditation? I’m not sure, but I do know I am definitely going to make a concerted effort to relax in the new year!