Relaxing Relaxation?

A few hours later than originally planned – here’s the post from yesterday!

The thing which kept me from posting, was the fact that after a day up at Eden Hall, I was, actually, crackered (exhausted)!

My sister and I went up there for a treat for our birthdays this year, a pressie from Mum and Dad (Thanks M&D!).

We got there at just after 9am, were greeted with a drink, and were promptly booked in with instructions on how to enjoy the day. Off we went to find our lockers and read our schedule of what time lunch was booked for. 2pm! But the list of activities that were on that day included something called “Dance Hoop” which is apparently, the new craze sweeping the land. Salsa classes? Oh Dahling… that’s SO 2008!

Basically, Dance hoop is an adult version of the hula hoop – so, it’s bigger, and it’s weighted! The class was fully booked, and the fun began. Further helped along by the instructor being un-stoppbably-watchable as he didn’t seem to move at all whilst keeping his hoop nicely around his waist (I think he did it all with magnets). It did seem a bit like, er, magic.

That half an hour, I have to say was the most energetic of the whole day. After this, we spent a couple of hours in the pool – swimming a bit, then chatting a lot, swimming a bit, chatting a bit more, then lunch – and the afternoon was overtaken by an attack of the sleepies! It was so peaceful at the Hall, nice and warm, so relaxing, that you could do nothing other than, relax, let your muscles sink and rest against the sunlouger or sofa, in the conservatory the warmth seems to pervade from every angle, and in the garden, there seemed to be hidden patio loungers, as it felt far warmer than it looked. Suitably satisfied with a lovely 3 course lunch and a glass of wine, your head starts to feel heavy, your eyes feel comfortably warm and your eyelids start to take longer blinks. Before you know it, you are so relaxed, you are asleep.

Well, my sister would have been if I’d have stopped chatting to her. It seems, that whilst I do do “relaxed”, and “chilled” quite well at home, on holiday, a day of relaxing is something I feel the need to practise! It is, very much like putting the world – your world, on pause. My pause button seems to be a little stuck!

It felt as though, I was so energised by the thought, or plan of relaxing, that sitting in the conservatory with people nodding around me, felt a little – frustrating!

So – are all these states that we can feel – those that we don’t ‘normally’ access, are they like an musical instrument – and to get the best out of them we need to practise them? Keep accessing them?

It was a fantastic day, peaceful, and even though we both felt shattered at the end of it, it was, relaxing. What was really lovely though, was to spend a full day with my sister. Life takes over most of the time, and we’re all so busy doing what we do – maybe unconsciously, that we don’t consciously choose to be aware of doing what we do.

Live a nonsomnambulistic life. Choose.

Choose to relax, deeply now, and know that when you return, life will be all the more enjoyable for choosing conscious awareness.

How quickly can we practise to relax?