Articles & Blog
Permission to Relax….
I know I’m not the only one who struggles to relax sometimes…
Many of you probably know from coming to our recent events, I’m now very heavily pregnant. As someone who’s pretty driven, ambitious and business-focussed, it has been, (and I’m sure will continue to be), a massive lesson to me to give myself permission to relax through this time, and into the future.
Overloaded World – High Alert.
I know I’m not the only one who struggles with this, as our world becomes increasingly cluttered with constant emails, facey messages, tweets, posts, ads, pings, pins, stumbles, etc. the noise creates a sense of urgency that drives our body-mind system into a constant state of alertness. It’s actually fight or flight. Adrenalin. Not good for extended periods of time.
I used to have a terrible habit of checking my iphone last thing before bed, and first thing in the morning. Constantly checking it when I had one second when I wasn’t doing something, I have since decided that the best way for me to stop myself doing that is to leave my phone on silent in my office when I finish work for the day.
Do you have permission to relax?
Permission is a wonderful frame of mind to take into a problem, to help shift it. Often we have unconscious rules about what we are and are not allowed to do, we’re not even aware of them until they become problems.
So here’s some questions to help you discover if you’re allowed to relax.
- Do you have permission to relax?
- Are there caveats or rules about when and where you can relax? i.e I can’t relax until I’ve…
- Are you allowed to do nothing?
- Are you allowed to rest?
- Do you value relaxation as an importnat part of creating health and happiness?
- Do you prioritise time to relax?
- Do you take time out for holidays?
Set the intent to relax.
You need to create the intention to relax in order to do it. Rest is vital for your immune system, brain and body to function properly, you will get more done after some time in quiet relaxation than attempting to do 5 things at once all at crazy speed. If you don’t value rest, you will think of it as ‘doing nothing’ and may not value that time that you are spending relaxing.
I now block out time in my calendar for rest, so I don’t get tempted to think that I’m not doing something productive and then overbook myself.
Find out your relaxing faves.
It’s always easier to relax on holiday, away from the distractions and pressures of home and work. That’s because you’re in a different environment, with different parameters and intentions. You can create a ‘holiday/ relaxation’ space in your daily life with some simple tweaks. Here’s some suggestions you might like to test out…
- Bath with candles.
- Massage at a spa.
- Massage with your partner with relaxing aromatherapy oils
- Long savasna at the end of yoga practice.
- Closing your eyes and taking 3 deep breaths anytime.
- Using a meditation or hypnosis mp3 on your ipod.
- taking a meditation or relaxation class.
- Meditating.
- Reading your favourite escapist fiction.
- Maybe even a long slow run.
- Walk outside in nature.
- Taking time shirin-yoku — Japanese for “bathing in the forest air”.
- Lying on the grass napping
99 Percent have some great tips to stop the communication overload too. Check it out here.
What are your favourite relaxation tips?
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