Relax. Implement relaxation techniques and habits to make me less stressed into my everyday life.

to take Cora for longer walks in the forest. We’re often in the forest for about an hour and a half, but some of that time is often spent taking a break somewhere so Cora can search for treats of play with sticks. Today though, we were out for a bit longer than one and a half hours, and we walked the whole time. Cora got to play with sticks along the way, but we never stopped. Often, when I walk her for an hour or so, I can spend most of that time going over problems over an over in my head. I started out doing that today as well, I was very upset about something and spent a lot of time thinking about that, even though there is nothing I can do about this problem, so thinking about it is pointless. But by the end of the walk, I noticed my thoughts had calmed down, and instead of being frustrated, I was just enjoying the winter wonderland around me, and my super-cute, supexited poodle bouncing around. I felt much calmer, and I’m feeling much better now.
I’ve noticed that before actually, shorter walks of an hour or so don’t really help, but the longer I walk, the calmer I seem to feel. At least if the weather is reasonably nice so that walking feels nice and not just cold and wet. So, I think it would be a good idea to take Cora for more 2 hour walks whenever I’m able to go during the day (as it gets dark outside at around 4 pm these days, and I don’t like to be in the forest in the dark). Good exercise for me, fun and exercise for her and a good relaxation exercise.
That will have to wait a week or two though, as princess Cora is leaving for another luxury holiday with her grandparents this evening. ;)

I’m lucky enough to live with two masters of relaxation. I think my goal for christmas should be to observe and learn from them!

my most important goal in 2009, and I need to start working on it now. I now have almost two weeks of holiday, so it should be a perfect opportunity. But I find it extremely hard. I just find that when I am not busy working, I have more time to worry, and it’s so hard to avoid doing that. At the moment, life is just hard. All my friendships feel complicated in one way or another. The situation with Agatha is heartbreaking. My finances are a complete disaster. The headaches that kept me from having a life at all for years, are creeping back. I now have a job until july, but things are very uncertain after that. Most of my friends are now happy with boyfriends/husbands and children, which makes me feel lonely.

I try to relax and think of nice things, or think of nothing at all, but some worry tends to creep into my mind, and it’s really hard to stop thinking of the difficult things.

And the other problem is that I have ADD, which means many forms of meditation and relaxation doesn’t work for me. I’ve been to some meditation courses, which was a disaster. Everyone else kept talking about how nice it was and how much they enjoyed the meditating, while I was so stressed I wanted to scream. I can’t focus on meditation for half an hour or more, which is what the courses taught us to do, it makes me more stressed, not less. No use trying to do what works for others and feeling like a failure for not being able to do it, I have other strenghts and weakneses than many other people, accepting that is the best way to go I think.

There are a few things I can do though. Just taking some deep breaths and relaxing my shoulders whenever I remember it does help a little some times. And I do like autogenic relaxation techniques, I can do that for 15 minutes on good days. I think I’ll have to try to make that a serious priority. And then try to do research into other things that works for me and helps me relax. And get back to reading the “Feel happy now” book that abs recommended, it looks promising, I just haven’t been able on focusing on reading it for some reason.

After 2 extremely stressful days at work on thursday and friday, I got the worst headache I`ve ever had. It was seriously awful, I hardly got any sleep at all the first night, because every time I moved just a little, it felt like someone was hitting me on the head with a hammer repeatedly.
Most workdays aren`t that bad, but it really made it clear to me that I don`t deal well with stress at all.
My problem is, I`m an impatient and easily distracted ADDer. Which means that for instance taking classes in meditation, yoga or tai chi, which is lovely for many people, is just torture to me. Believe me, I`ve tried. Having to focus on something, like my breath or a word or slow movements, for something like a whole hour is not even a little bit relaxing to me, I`m stressed out after an hour of that. I tried for a long time to fight it, thinking there was something wrong with me since everyone else seemed to love it. But I have realized that people are just different, I`m good at other things, that sort of thing is not good for me.
So I have to find other ways to relax, that doesn`t take that long, but still helps me deal with stress. Have got a book about relaxation from the library now, will try to read it during my vacation. And I must get back to reading my lovely “meditation in 3 minutes”-book.

And ofcourse, I must try harder to learn from the two champions of relaxation that I`m lucky enough to live with!

would be to learn to relax like a poodle! Dogs have the secret to a happy life, they really do. They are always here and now (except when they`re dreaming of fishpudding), when they play they forget everything around them, and when they relax, they look sooo incredibly relaxed. They should give humans relaxation classes.