Taking a break is important and relaxing in this break is important for this. We have a couple of tips to accomplish this relaxation.
Take a break
Take a step out of the busy or stressful situation for a few minutes. A break can help you with calming down. This break doesn’t need to take a long time, just a few minutes is most of the time long enough, but you can always take more time if you need to.
In the break you can read in a book or a magazine. You can also get a bath, play with a pet or watch a film.
Active relaxing
Sitting still is not for everyone a form of relaxation, you can also try a form of gentle exercise. For this you can think about a walk, this can be as long or short as you want. You can follow a class like yoga, Pilates or stretching. You can follow this class in person or on YouTube if that feels better. If you don’t have te space or time to do one of these, you can also try seated exercise.
If you want you can try some seated stretched/yoga with help from this video:
Breathing
Taking time to focus on your breathing can be done everywhere and helps by calming down.
While you are focusing on your breathing it is important to relax your body, lay your hand on your stomach to feel yourself breathing and put your feet on the ground. Count as you are breathing. Count to 4 while breathing in and again to 4 when you are breathing out.
Get creative
Doing something creative can help with relaxion. For this it is important to not focus to much about the end product. You can try painting, drawing, dancing, baking, or something else what you like to do yourself.
Spend time in nature and relax
Go outside, this can be in your garden, in a park in the neighborhood or in a forest. Pay attention to your surroundings what kind of trees, flowers or other plants do you see around you. Do you see any animals. Try not so much to pay attention to the things you still need to do but only to the surrounding things.
Afbeelding 6.1. n.n. Pixabay.
Music
Put on some music, it is important to put on music that helps you relax. You can choose for classical music or your favorite numbers. You can just listen to it or you can dance or even sing along. While listening you can also focus on what you hear, which different instruments can you hear or on which beat is it going. But most important focus on the music.
Tech break relaxing
Take a break from your technology. Technology can give a lot of notifications because of this taking a break can help a lot. Shut of your laptop, phone and even your smartwatch if you have one. Step away from it and go do something without them for a bit. You can do this as long as you want or as you need.
Afbeelding 6.2. n.n. Pixabay.
In the end: start more relaxing
It is important to take a break and relax for a bit. This can look different every time and different for everyone. But it is important to do it every day, take even if it is only 5 minutes at the time you need to do it to take care of yourself.
The pictures from this page are from pixabay.com
Mind (2021, November). Relaxation. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/relaxation/relaxation-tips/