I recently stumbled over this post on Karol Gajdas’ blog. He describes how he goes about finding tranquil relaxation in today’s busy world. It’s definitely worth a good read.
Personally, I employ a different method, but I decided to follow his advice for once, as I advocate trying out new stuff that costs you nothing and takes ten minutes of your time.
So I started off by turning everything off that had the chance of disturbing me, sat down in my comfy IKEA-chair and closed my eyes. Immediately, thoughts started filling the empty space in my mind. Nothing unusual. They became more and more of a background noise as I turned my attention to nothing specific in my surroundings. Still, I thought it was quite difficult to really relax completely.
So how would I do it? – I found some ideas that lead to this way of active relaxation a while ago on no specific website. It’s similar to Karol’s’ method but a little more “active”.
- Turn everything off. Or at least turn it on silent. I just do the latter. The important thing is that nothing disturbs your ten minutes for yourself.
- Breathe. I breathe in for three moments and breathe out for five. You have to choose what you do. Everything is fine, as long as it relaxed your mind and body.
- Focus. Here’s the difference. I normally try to slowly shift my attention inwards. To do this, I focus on three things that I hear, feel and (if my eyes are open) see. I focus for up to half a minute. Then I go for two different things. Then for one. Try to be aware of feelings, sounds and impressions that normally get lost in your selective attention, such as your own breathing or the feeling of your clothing on your body.
Once you’ve done that, close your eyes and imagine one thing you feel, hear or see in as much detail as possible. Then two, and then three different impressions. Try to create a broad mental picture in your head of a scene that relaxes you.
Depending on your level of detail and on how much effort you put in this, alone the introduction of this state can take between ten to twenty minutes. And you can hang on to this for as long as you want and even change the picture, as you like.
I call this technique my “mini vacation”, as I sometimes create pictures from my memory that were, in my eyes, awesome. For example: Looking over the Kilpisjärvi in northern Finland.
Try it out, right now, and tell me how you felt!
