Tips to Enhance Relaxation
How do you enjoy spending your relaxation time? Whether it’s being out in nature, listening to music, practicing relaxation techniques, or some other activity, I have some general tips to enhance your relaxation. These tips can help you refresh your energy and feel more focused.
Technology Breaks
We live in a technology-dependent society that often focuses on instant gratification. Technology is all around us, and it’s easy to forget that computers and phones can take up all of our time and energy, if we let them. If you have trouble keeping your focus while trying to relax, you are not alone. The desire to constantly check our phones or computers can rob us of essential time to relax and relieve stress. With outside sources bombarding you with images, messages, and information, you might become overwhelmed and fatigued. I have a story to tell about one of my clients who discovered a way to take charge of technology so it doesn’t rule her.
While I was having tea with a life coaching client a few years ago, she expressed frustration with constant distractions. As we talked about it, I was alarmed to learn that her device settings resulted in an alert for every email, call, and social media interaction. I said to her: “I am not going to tell you what to do, but I will say that if I had alerts set for all of those things, I would feel totally overwhelmed.” After discussing different ideas, she decided to experiment with shutting off all alerts for a week to see if that would help her focus better. Although she ultimately resumed alerts, she did limit them to certain hours of her workdays, and this helped her feel more in charge of her time and concentration.
I think we could all benefit from taking a step back to observe how much technology rules our time and energy. By setting up regular breaks from your devices and adjusting your settings in a way that feels more comfortable, you can free up some time to relax and re-energize yourself.
Focusing vs. Multi-tasking
Our minds can become overactive with spinning thoughts — for the most part, it’s an unconscious thing. We’re thinking about what we said, where we’re going, what we’re doing, something we forgot to do last week, what we need to do this week, what someone said a month ago, what happened a few years ago, and the list keeps going. Relaxation training is a great remedy because it focuses on living in the moment and releasing tension from the day. By turning your full attention to calming your body and mind, you can take a break from all of your tasks and responsibilities for a while. It’s important to let go of any multi-tasking during relaxation. Your tasks and responsibilities will still be there later, and you will approach them with greater ease and a fresh perspective if you give yourself time away from them.
Freedom from FOMO
FOMO is a term that’s gaining more and more attention – the fear of missing out. With the invention of social media like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, that fear has become a real snag for a lot of people. You find yourself worried that an event might be happening or someone might need you for something. If you are not connected or not out in the world, you might be missing out on something exciting! It’s a hard habit to break. However, distancing yourself from the constant fear that you’re missing out on something can foster an environment where you are free to focus on what you need instead of what you are missing. And if you are feeling stressed, what you probably need is some time to relax and recharge. I invite you to take some time right now to try a relaxation technique:
As you turn your attention to the muscles of your neck and shoulders, tense these muscles by shrugging your shoulders, as if you were trying to touch your shoulders to your ears. Notice where the tension is coming from, focusing on how it feels, holding it… and now releasing. Letting go of those muscles in your neck and shoulders.
Feeling the tension draining down into the ground...
Repeat tensing the muscles of your neck and shoulders by shrugging tightly. Notice where the tension is coming from.... Focusing on how it feels. Holding it... and releasing. Letting go of those muscles, feeling them sinking…
Visualizing the vertebrae in your neck like cotton balls…Softer, lighter, relaxed.
As blood flows into those muscles, allow them to unwind and loosen and smooth out... Noticing the difference in how those muscles feel now compared to before… Softer, looser, smoother.
With each breath, notice the difference. Allowing the relaxation to deepen with each breath you take…
That was a brief relaxation technique to give you an idea of relaxation training. If you want to experience a whole session, I invite you to try my Wednesday night guided relaxation training sessions on Zoom. Here is a link from my website that explains the sessions:
https://www.atimeforexpression.com/invitation-to-relax
May you find some time each day to relax, renew, and recharge!
