I'm a bit late but for good reason. Levi is home for two weeks and when your almost-23 year old offspring wants to hang out with you playing board games and hiking, then you play board games and go hiking instead of what you had planned to do.
Today's topic is relaxation. Retirement 2.0 allows me all the time I want for activities that I find relaxing. The trick is to not allow "relaxing" to turn into inertia and end up as "couch potato." When I retired the first time, I did experience some periods of time during which this became a problem. Fortunately I was able to break the cycle and return to a healthier lifestyle fairly quickly. For me, this takes a bit of effort though: self-discipline, stern talks to myself and planning. I have always been a list-maker and list checker-offer and one strategy that usually works for me is to set goals. I get a little hit of serotonin when I get to check something off that list. I have annual, monthly, weekly and daily goals (or to-do lists, whatever you want to call them). As a matter of fact, it's just about time to sit down with my 2024 day planner and put some thought into the new year. Another strategy I haven't yet tried was suggested to me by a retired teacher that I used to work with. She told me that she gets up and changes what she is doing every hour. I kind of like this idea but I think that hourly might be a bit excessive - what if my book is really good and I don't want to stop reading?? I'll think more on that one and let you know if I decide to give it a go. I'm lucky to have great friends and several of them are also retired so I can make plans with other people fairly frequently. Having a commitment is also an effective strategy to get up off the couch.
I'm not sure about other people but in addition to the standard calming sorts of things, I find my active interests relaxing as well. Most of those activities will come up in topics later in the year so this week I have focused on the solo, quiet, more typical things you might think about in relation to the word, "relaxation."
I am aware that it is a privilege to have the opportunity to relax and that I have so many choices available to me. I am grateful for that. Here are a few...
ReadingIf there are letters, words and paragraphs on it, I will likely read it. I come from a family of avid readers and I grew up reading the cereal box at the breakfast table. If there wasn't something to read in the bathroom, there was always the shampoo bottle. On early road trips to P.E.I., we filled the car with comics and traded back and forth until every last word had been read by all four of us (unless SOMEONE hoarded Archie!). Along with most of the modern world, I now spend a lot of leisure time watching a screen but I continue to love books in all forms - paper, e-reader and audio. I have to brag on my book club (all former colleagues - OTs, PTs, SLPs and an RN) who has been meeting monthly for just about 26 years now. Fantastic, right?!?
This is my reading chair which I often do not have the rights to. Three cats and one person - you do the math. As an aside, this chair is two years old and already needed a cover and now the cover needs a cover - darn cat claws!
This is my friend Donna's dog. She went for a 6am walk then spent the next couple of hours "relaxing." Also related to pets, there's research that says petting a cat or dog lowers your blood pressure (provided the pet is cooperative of course) so it's a win-win situation. You relax by petting the dog and the dog relaxes getting all your love and attention.
Not the healthiest way to relax but yummy nonetheless.
When I was setting up to photograph the glass of wine, I shot this and just loved the abstract look and colours. It's a wine glass my cousin Holly painted. She made one for each of the attendees at my aunt's 70th birthday party a while back (I couldn't make it to Indianapolis since I was on jury duty at the time but my mom brought it back for me).
I don't know what's going on with my skin here but oh well, I managed a selfie with the camera so, yay me! I just finished a six week program to manage my long-standing insomnia (it was fantastic and if you are interested, I can boringly talk for hours about it) and one of the strategies that was recommended was daily meditation. I'm still pretty bad at it - my mind usually wanders quickly and frequently - but I continue to work at it and I will get better.
There is a lot of crap out there in TV/streaming-land but there is also tons that is interesting, educational, escapist, funny, heartwarming, dramatic, etc - something for everyone. One of the other recommendations from the sleep doctor was to make sure not to watch anything that will raise your adrenaline level in the hours before bedtime. I renewed my interest in stand-up comedy so I had something light to watch during the wind-down period. If you haven't seen the Seth Meyers Lobby Baby special, give it a go. I recently re-watched it and laughed just as much as the first time. Starting tonight, I'm going to re-watch Michael McIntyre's Showman special - another very funny one. I enjoy comics who are able to make everyday things funny.
We'll talk soon.
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