"I'll do it after the first of the year," you say, or "when the kids finish school." But the truth is, those times are always in the future and the need for balanced relaxation in our lives is now.
If you aren't able to find a hut in the middle of nowhere to find peace and quiet, then try for a smaller, more reachable goal.
One woman finally insisted with her family that they must all arranged to cover for her so she could get away to the local Barnes and Noble once a week to sip some coffee and peruse the magazines and books for a couple of hours. Another asked friends to watch her kids so she could go sit in a hot tub at the local recreation center now and then. One man began taking that lunch hour he once worked through to go meditate at a facility he'd found in his area.
It doesn't have to be complicated or involve expensive trips away to even more expensive retreats in the mountains, which take time away from work, family, jobs and typically end up being even more stressful. It's actually the little pockets of time, and little bits of relaxation during our day to day activity that add up to a more balanced life of stress versus relaxation.
Here are a few simple ideas for getting away for short periods of time:
*Find a local park and visit it during your lunch hour to eat or just walk or sit.
*Utilize your own back yard now and then to sit and watch the birds or clouds
*At home, run a hot bath and soak while listening to gentle music and/or using gentle aroma candles
*Go for walks in your area to relax the eyes from all the electronic stimulation
*Go visit your local library on a day when all the kids are in school. They are fairly quiet places.
*Visit a Day Spa and get a massage in your area
Be creative and remember to listen to yourself. When you find yourself saying "I'll do it later", you can be sure it's because you think it's too big of a task to get to right now. Making the task smaller makes it reachable and doable. You can't put off your need for relaxation forever. Your body and mind will eventually catch up with you and the stress by then will take so much longer to correct in order to bring balance to your life.
Thanks to Lain Merchant for the great photos
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
