A Million and One Ways To Relax
On the other hand, there are ways to relax that start with something more strenuous... exercise, power-walking, deep muscle relaxation. How do these things help you relax? When a muscle is in it's resting state, relaxing it doesn't feel that much different... but when you tighten that muscle up and then relax it, the muscle relaxes even more than it was able to only seconds before. Deep muscle relaxation is a process of using the bio-feedback technique, but tensing each muscle up before relaxing it. I found this very effective!
When I first started thinking about this article, I asked some of the folks in our chatroom here at Suite101 what they did to relax. Along with some of the answers above, they said they take a nice relaxing country drive, spend time with a hobby, take a few minutes to visit their friends in chat, and listen to music. One of the favorite hobbies was gardening, the beauty of watching something grow and feeling the plant's energy. I also realized that the chatroom was relaxing because it gives you a chance to act silly, laugh, let go of the real world for a while, and one of the best things was that there's always a friend in there to talk to.
Listening to music seemed to be something every person agreed on! We all have our favorite music that instantly makes us relax. I suggest using whatever is relaxing to you, but try not to use something that is too "familiar" because you'll end up singing along instead of focusing on relaxation.
I can still hear some of you saying "I don't have time!" Okay, okay... how about aromatherapy? I keep a tiny little bottle of lavendar on my desk. Whenever I feel even slightly stressed out, I dab a little on my pulse points... and the scent of lavendar is spicy so it's okay for males or females. They even have a bubble bath "potion" now that turns the water lavendar in color. Once a week, treat yourself to a bubble bath... light candles, play music, use aromatherapy during and after, and enjoy a nice glass of your favorite wine or a wonderful hot chocolate. You'll sleep like a baby!
I am doing an article on crystal healing in a couple of weeks, but one especially fits in here - Amethyst. This quartz crystal actually soaks up stress! If you read my
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