Although everyone has to deal with fatigue and stress on a more or less regular basis in our busy world, many people don’t give much thought to the manner in which they seek relaxation at the end of each day. This is unfortunate, because anyone can suffer from not properly restoring their energy or dealing with stress. With these steps, it’s possible to have truly satisfying renewal in your limited free time.
Create a space for relaxation
After a busy day at work, most people simply look forward to getting home, unwinding and enjoying some well-deserved rest. However, our living spaces are all influenced by functional design. Often, homes and individual rooms are either suited for general purposes, or specialized in function – think kitchen, bathroom, or living room. If you craft a space that’s specifically intended for relaxation, it will be more effective for this purpose than any other part of the house. It could be an outdoor custom spa where you soak up the views of Salt Lake City while soothing your body, or a simple meditation area of your garden that’s designed to keep out noise, visual distractions, and foot traffic. By making part of your home into an effective retreat, you’ll have an improved ability to clear your mind and enjoy your spare time each day.
Manage sources of stress
Being able to relax successfully at home can often be a matter of eliminating various sources of stress from your daily life. Effective stress management begins with identifying the stressors; sometimes these are major factors or events, such as dealing with changes in relationships or at work. The habit of journal writing can help you break down complex, stress-inducing issues and identify underlying problems, such as a tendency to procrastinate or refusal to take ownership of factors which you can control. Developing this awareness of your limits and the power you have over stressors will in turn help you to better manage stressful relationships, cut down on your responsibilities and tasks, and achieve a balanced schedule by minimizing the time spent with people or on activities that seem to induce stress. You’ll also gain an acceptance of the factors which are truly beyond your control, and invest your willpower on matters where you can actually make a difference.
Practice relaxation techniques
A lot of people relax by engaging themselves in forms of entertainment – whether it’s binge-watching on Netflix, surfing cable channels, playing video games, or scrolling through social media feeds, we are all apt to default to our diversions of choice at the end of the day. But these behaviors may not actually provide a lot of relaxation; many studies have been conducted on different techniques which effectively stimulate our bodies’ relaxation response. A simple routine of deep breathing exercises, possibly combined with body scanning – focusing your awareness on a group of muscles and progressively relaxing physical tension – can be effective at disengaging your mind and reducing stress. You can also find various apps which help establish a routine of meditation, or guided imagery – the practice of visualizing calming scenes or experiences. If you’re interested in techniques with greater physical involvement, the ancient arts of yoga, tai-chi, or qigong combine breathing exercises and patterns of movement, and can improve both mental and physical health.
Applying these tips, you can gain greater benefits and recharge more effectively even with an hour or two to spare each day.
