top five relaxation techniques

[constance]

1. Taking a long hot bath. I don't have a shower in my bathroom, just an old pink cast-iron bathtub, but even if I had a shower, I probably wouldn't use it, because I dearly love soaking. I lean back and zone out and the next thing I know it's half an hour later and the water's getting cold. It's not sleeping, and it's not conscious meditation; it's just this perfect free-float. It's a good way to start the day, I find, but I have to be careful not to zone out for too long.



2. Brushing the dog. He needs it, because he is a hairy monster who sheds bushels of fur by the week. He loves it. I love it. Win/win/win.



3. Driving. This one's pretty specific: it can't be on interstate, or in city traffic. But give me a long country road and lots of green and I could drive forever, whether the radio worked or not. (Working radio = good, though.)



4. Reading. I seriously can't go to sleep unless I've read myself somnolent. (The best choice for relaxing, for me, is to read something I've read before.)



5. Painting my toenails/giving myself a pedicure. Because I'm secretly sort of shallow.

:::

Now it's your turn. What are your favorite relaxation techniques?

Comments

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

The bath thing is something I have been thinking about a lot recently. Leit loves bathing of all types - showers, baths, hot tubs, what have you. He likes to take a long shower when he comes home from work as a way to unwind. In fact, it's his biggest stress releaser. And I get it. When I remember to, taking a shower after work is a good way for me to unwind. I can feel my shoulders relax under the hot water.

But for me, showering is mostly a morning thing. It's all about waking up, getting refreshed and alert. Leit gave me a bunch of Aveda goodies for Valentine's day, including some shower gel whose scent is "Calming." And I can't use it in the morning! I need all my mint and eucalyptus and rosemary things that pep me up for the day. Funny how the same thing can work two opposing ways.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Funny how the same thing can work two opposing ways.

Isn't it, though! For me, it's down to the simple difference of bath vs. shower -- I find showers invigorating. Baths, though, they just make my bones melt.

Lucky you and your valentines gifts! I love bath stuff.

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

1. Taking a long, warmish bath in someone else's bathtub with a good book. Or even a trashy book. Anything I can read in the tub, really. And not too hot a bath or I get woozy when I get out. And not in my own tub because my tub is gross - it's old and stained and just generally looks like something on which I don't want to put my bare delicates, even though I clean it. The tub, that is. And my delicates. But they get cleaned more often than the tub. Anyway, I like to take a bath that is not so hot it leaves me parboiled, in a tub that is aesthetically pleasing, while reading a book that requires more enjoyment than brainpower.

2. Swimming. Indoor only in this weather.

3. Kayaking. Not possible at all in this weather.

4. Skiing. Not possible much longer, I'm afraid, but the month in which I've had my new Fischer nordic skis has given me lots of joy, even if my hamstrings are now so tightly coiled I could use them as bedsprings.

5. Biking. Possible in this weather, but only if I felt like risking my life. Snow removal here is not what I, as a native Upstate New Yorker, find even remotely acceptable. A true discredit to the Upper Midwest.

6. Cuddling a cat. But it has been a long time since I have had a cat at hand, regretfully. I just can't deal with the thought of all my furniture covered in hair and dander, and I don't have time enough to keep the allergens to a minimum.

7. Cooking. For the last year I have made ridiculous quantities of soup, but I bought a pasta machine three years ago, and I make my own pizza dough. I like feeding people; it makes me feel needed.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Reading your list makes me realize how much of a slug I really am! I do get exercise, these days, but more because I need to than because I find it in any way rewarding. (I feel as though I ought to like gardening, but my ability to wither plants with a single glance has kind of spoiled the experience for me.) Even walking is more a chore than an enjoyment.

I do love to swim, though. I swam competitively as a kid/early teen, and eventually dropped out because I hated to compete on any level, but if I'm not competing, I can reach trance state incredibly quickly. I've been meaning to join a local gym with a pool. Maybe I'll get around to doing that soon.

I agree with the pet cuddling, too. My cat is not specially cuddly, actually -- she's a very active participant in any petting scenarios that are staged in our house -- but my dearest old cat Alex, he who died a couple of years ago, was the best cuddler on earth, and I miss that terribly.

I like to cook, and like to feed people, but I find it a little stressful, because it doesn't come naturally to me.

Thanks for playing! I love to see other people's responses to these lists.

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

Reading your list makes me realize how much of a slug I really am! I do get exercise, these days, but more because I need to than because I find it in any way rewarding.

I don't know that I always find it rewarding, or even enjoyable sometimes - it's just that I have this weird metabolism and biochemistry that require a ridiculous amount of activity in order for me to maintain both a comfortable weight and an even keel. I get really cagey and irritable if I don't move around enough, so I often find myself taking long, aimless walks just so I have something to do outside. Being around me when I'm under-exercised is kind of like watching a retired greyhound just sit there and quiver until it's let out to run around again.

Edited to remove nonstop italics

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

I know lots of people who have a shower and no bathtub, but you're the first person I've heard of in quite a while who's got a vice versa situation going on! I've tried to get into the tub scene, but for some reason, I can't find it relaxing. Well, unless it's a hot tub and I can loll more or less upright. Maybe it's the whole reclining thing I don't care for.

As for rereading something to get in the mood to sleep, I so agree! It's such a comforting, foolproof, lull-yourself-to-sleep maneuver. And I agree with your driving requirements, too. For me, the requirement is rolling hills. It can be an 8-lane highway and the hills can be brown, but if they're that nice, ice cream scoop shape with the occasional gnarled oak, I'm in heaven.

I'd put the driving and the reading on my list, but that'd be copycatting. So here are five others:

1. Menial labor that can be accomplished while sitting. Cutting out geometric shapes for a kindergarten art project, sorting papers for next-door Jan, mounting 5th grade artwork on black construction paper, etc. Basically anything that's repetitive and doesn't require much creativity- so soothing!

2. Riding in a bus or train. I don't do much of this anymore, unfortunately, and when I do it's never by myself, but oh, how I love settling into my seat, zoning out, and idly watching the scenery/fellow passengers.

3. Listening to either Palestrina's masses or Alan Rickman reading "Return of the Native". I have to be careful not to do either of these while driving, because they send me into a trance of relaxation.

4. Making ambitious to-do lists. How sad that this has the opposite effect that it should.

5. Lying under a heavy pile of children and dog. I don't know why being crushed is so relaxing, but it is.

Re: Edited to remove nonstop italics

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Palestrina!

(And mmm, Alan Rickman! Have you heard him reading "My Mistress' Eyes?")

Re: Edited to remove nonstop italics

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I do have a shower, actually -- my second bathroom has one -- so if I were really interested in showering, I could manage it. But I got used to the baths years ago, and refuse to give them up if I don't have to!

Maybe the bath issue is something to do with your height? I'm medium-tallish, so I never am in danger of submersion unless I want to be submerged, but I have a friend who's much smaller, and she says she feels really uncomfortable in baths because she feels as though she has to concentrate on not going under.

I am so behind 1, 2 (ferries across the Mississippi River are also sublime, as I learned while in NO), 4, and 5 (well, pets, since there mostly aren't children conveniently to hand when I'm ready to wind down) that I feel I should look up the things you mention in #3 just on principle. :D

Re: Edited to remove nonstop italics

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I do have one objection to traveling on public transportation, though, that I just remembered: for some reason, I got hit on while riding around in NO on a semi-frequent basis, and it completely weirded me out. As long as no one's trying to pick me up, though, I am A-OK.