Relaxation Techniques That’ll Have You Chillaxed in No Time

Don’t you ever wish you could force some people to just RELAX?  Primarily for their own good, of course, but for your’s as well since, frankly, they wear you out with all their fretting.

I’m lucky, because most of the time the people and pets in my household are, emotionally, mentally, and physically as relaxed as the kitten above. 

Life will throw us a curve ball every now and then and we don’t resemble the chilled cat one little bit.  Curve balls like poison ivy, my Dodge seeing what fresh hell it can come up with, illnesses, business kinks, my Starbucks closing before I needed it to, etc.

With the medical evidence pointing to the effect stress plays on our heart health, you’d think that we’d all find a way to relax more often.  It’s not JUST our relationships that depend upon it, our very life does as well.

The problem is, we’re all trying to do too much these days.  Everyone’s trying to make all the money they can while they can.  The rat race is causing me to think we’d all be better off if we returned to a simpler way of life - you know, the one lived beneath our means rather than at it or above it.  

I saw a man in Kroger today talking on the cellphone a mile a minute and bumping into anyone who dared to get in his busy, flusterd way.  A cutie patootie of a lady (80ish, not more than 4′ 3″, with her hair all done up and wearing a very nice red rain jacket) walked past him and, loudly, told her grandson, “There’s a heart attack waiting to happen.”  The boy AND the man both smiled and nodded.

When I left, I thought  about several things:  How sweet the lady’s grandson was being with her, how cute she was, and how much I missed my mom and mother in law (they were real pips themselves!).  I also wondered where she got the hot rain jacket!

Mostly, I wondered if overhearing her would make the human commotion slow down any.  I wondered if he’d go home and put the phone down long enough to tell his wife about the hilarious little woman who called him out on the floor.  As someone who genuinely loves everyone, I very much hope that her words will lodge somewhere in his mind and cause him to heed the warning life just granted him.

Take a Personal Inventory

To get an idea of how much relaxation you’re allowing into your life, ask yourself the following question:

Do little things seem to set me off?
Things like unfortunate stop lights, people who pull out in front of you, a restaurant messing up your order, your son’s girlfriend’s piercings, your son’s piercings, and so on are simply NOT worth the energy most people spend on them.

I’m sure you’ve seen people in restaurants pitching little tantrums because their order isn’t right. Not worth it. My daughter Brittany works in a department store in the mall. She tells me that I wouldn’t believe how angry people get when they have to leave the store at closing time. They make three announcements before locking the doors, then the workers walk around making sure everyone has left. When they find stragglers and politely tell them that the doors are about to be locked, she says they always bite the worker’s heads off. Heaven forbid the workers actually want to go home!

One evening, 10 minutes past the store’s closing time, she was walking around with a 17 year old male cashier. The young man told a lady (who didn’t have any bags OR merchandise) in her hands that the main door had been locked already, but that he could help her out a side door. The woman yelled at him and calle him a “fat b******!”

Because he offered to help her to a side door. 10 minutes past the time she should have been long gone.

She was obviously someone who, besides not having any class whatsoever, had no idea how to live a relaxed life. She’s one of the millions of people who keep allowing themselves to get more and more tightly wrapped, until the day comes that they make an utter fool out of themselves and make someone else pay for it.

If small things tend to bother you more than you know they should, you need to start TODAY learning how to relax.

A Few Suggestions:

 
1. It may sound ridiculous, but just realizing that you need to relax will help you more than anything. If you were overly-wrapped like our sweetheart in the department store and thought the problem was everyone else, then I wouldn’t hold out much hope for you. But if you can honestly say, “I need to relax more!” - You’re on your way. The thing is, you need to remind yourself to relax every single day. Some days, it may take a couple dozen reminders.

Put something in a prominent place - a sticker, stuffed animal, picture of a loved one, etc. Basically something that makes you smile. Every time you look at it, let it serve as a reminder to slow down and enjoy the moment. I have a stuffed polar bear on my desk that makes me smile whenever I look at him. (A while back we had a problem with hackers on several of our sites and I got to the point I seldom took my eyes off of him!)

Stop demanding so much from life and just enjoy it.

2. Take about a dozen really deep breaths. I’m not sure why this helps to signal relaxation to our bodies, but it does. Unfortunately, most of us take rapid, shallow breaths. This type of breathing makes the rest of the body think we’re in a battle of some sort. Slowing our breathing down signals to it that all’s well.

3. If you’re going through a stressful time, or if you feel overwhelmed at work, drink more water. This is something else we don’t do enough of. Our bodyrequires more water than we provide, and when we shortchange it, we suffer: Physically, emotionally, and mentally.

4. Make sure you’re getting enough rest. I don’t require a lot of sleep - I never have. (Some would say it’s because I seldom exert enough energy to have to recover from…and I couldn’t really argue the point.) However, when I go a few days with less sleep than my body wants, I sure FEEL it. Some people get cranky when they don’t get enough rest, I get weepy. I’ve been battling (and losing to) poison oak for a few weeks and sleep has been scarce. I realized it had taken it’s toll this morning when a picture of a baby monkey made me teary eyed!

I took a nap.

5. Again, keep things in perspective. We blow so many things up that should be allowed to stay the tiny, insignificant little things they are. Sometimes it helps if you put yourself in someone else’s shoes. When the server doesn’t refill your drink as often as you want her/him to - imagine working on your feet 8 hours, earning very little pay, and (most frightening of all) having to deal with the public all day. Maybe it’ll make you smile and ask for another drink rather than stew and mentally deduct from the tip.

For your own health and happiness, as well as those around you - start practicing relaxation tactics immediately. Become an expert at catching yourself as soon as tension begins to build. Tell yourself, out loud, “This isn’t a big deal.” When we focus and focus on situations, we make them so big that they become like huge ogres in the car or room with us. But if we simply say, “Not worth it,” they suddenly shrink.

Relax! You’ll soon find yourself enjoying life a lot more. Life is for living and we should savor every moment. It’s a beautiful world if you’ll let it be.

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