Unplug from your day and into yourself
10 minutes to slow down and focus on your breathing.
10 minutes to let go of the world, its busyness and its chores, and reconnect with you, going back to centre, back home, turning inwards.
The tumult of the world comes at us through our screens; I invite you to unplug from them and plug into yourself for a few moments. We give so much energy to everything else, to everyone else; we must make time to recharge.
When you relax, your heart rate lowers, you release tension in your muscles, and they soften; your mind can let go, and thoughts become freer.
That knot in your neck, the tension and tightness in your shoulders, the shallow breathing, the headaches, the backache, the crowded thoughts - all of this can lessen when you practice regular relaxation.
It helps calm you and moves you from a tense, vigilant state to a restful one
You move from fear to love. From tightness to looseness. From resignation to hope.
It feels weird
You may have tried, and it doesn’t ‘work’. You’re so used to being busy that it’s tough at first to relax into the idea of relaxing. It doesn’t come naturally. It feels ‘weird ’, strange, and even uncomfortable to ‘do nothing'. You fidget and twitch, your thoughts won’t stop, and so you stop doing it. The vicious cycle of tension and stress continues.
And yet, this is free, restorative medicine!
I’ll talk you through a few tips to help you move beyond the awkwardness and start enjoying it.
Then I’ll guide you through a simple yet effective breathing exercise. So hang on!
Let’s see how you can go beyond ‘it feels weird, I can’t relax, it’s not working’ to feeling the advantages.
Tip 1: Remind yourself of the benefits
Heart health, mental health, soul health, my health and well-being!
Tip 2: Schedule it in your diary
Create an alert, decide when and where you’re going to practice. You put your dentist appointments in your diary, your work meetings, so why not your 5-minute breather?
This makes you think about it and imagine yourself doing it. You have set yourself in motion. It’s the ‘ready, steady’ before the ‘go!’ Can you imagine runners setting off without the ‘ready, steady ’?
You can also tell other people around you what you're going to do. Saying words out loud carries a lot of weight. Our voice is energy in motion! You're also saying it to yourself again when you do this.
You might say, what’s the point? It’s only 5 minutes - I’ll find time. Yes, but how has not planning it into your day been working out for you up to now? How has not setting time aside been working?
Choose not to leave this to chance!
Tip 3: Do it and expect nothing!
Practice with an open, neutral mind. When your expectations are too high, you’ll probably be disappointed. Don’t set either too high an expectation on the practice or on yourself. Don’t swing the other way either and ‘predict’ that it will do no good or that you are no good at it.
This will probably happen when you first practice relaxation
Your body
When you first start relaxing, you’ll probably notice itches; you might find it hard to keep still or get comfortable. You might start scratching that itch. This is completely normal. Your mind and body are not used to setting time aside to let go. You might feel your heart racing and feel stressed.
Normalise these sensations in your body. There is nothing wrong! You can say to yourself, ‘Oh well, never mind and carry on’ Because these sensations and feelings will pass. it just needs a little time.
Your mind
You might think: I can't calm my mind; my thoughts are all over the place, I knew this wouldn’t work! Am I supposed to be thinking nothing? How do you do that?
Then you start worrying about your thoughts and not being able to relax, and the negative self-doubting thoughts: ‘I can’t do this’; ‘I knew it wouldn’t work’, creep in. You judge yourself or the exercise. I’m rubbish; this is rubbish. And you give up.
When you find it hard to relax, what you are finding hard is to let go of your heavy bundle of tension and pressure.
It feels abnormal to put it down. Instead of choosing to pick up that heavy bundle and give up any relaxation practice, acknowledge what is happening and say to yourself: ok I can feel you’re having a hard time letting go; that’s ok, just keep going.
Tip 4. Recognise that some days will be easier than others.
This isn’t a straight line. Life isn’t straight or linear. Any relaxation practice isn’t either.
However, with regularity and focus, you can feel more comfortable slipping into relaxation. Anything you practice regularly, you gradually feel more at ease doing; it comes more naturally, and you start to enjoy it.
In sum
Remind yourself of the benefits
Plan it into your day and tell people you’re going to do it
Don’t expect anything
Keep practicing
And you will reap the very real benefits
Listen to this audio. If you want to jump straight to the relaxation, it's at 8 minutes 10
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