I’m a big believer in taking time out of everyday life for
yourself to relax and refresh. Listen to
your body – tense shoulders, not sleeping and fuzzy head are all signs for me
that I’m doing too much and need to “check myself before I wreck myself”. I work in quite a stressful profession so
it’s important for me to take time for myself shutting the stresses of home
life, work etc and taking time to just relax think of nothing, nowhere to go
nothing to do.
Through past experience I’ve learned that if I don’t do
this, if I don’t listen to my body, the outcome is not good. So I’ve come up with a little stress survival
plan that works for me. These are my top
3 tips on how to close the door, put normal life in a little box for a while
and focus on relaxing, whatever your budget.
1. Massage
One of my favourite things is a back and neck massage. Full body massage always leaves me feeling a
little bit yucky with all the toxins going about your body. But a neck and shoulder massage is perfect. This is my go to if I feel my shoulders are
really tight and up at my ears, which is quite often. I prefer a firm pressure as I have a
ridiculous amount of knots in my shoulders and though a light touch is nice and
relaxing, I feel I get more out of a firm massage. The darkened room, soothing music and small
of lavender can’t help but make you zone out for half an hour and just focus on
trying not to fall asleep.
Cost:
This varies
depending on where you go but a back and neck massage can come in anywhere
around £30 - £45.
Look out for offers at
Pure Spa (for those in Scotland) sometimes they do massages for £20.
https://www.purespauk.com/
Effort: Getting to
and from spa if required. If someone can
pick you up this is good as you don’t need to think about getting on the right
bus home in your zombie state.
Relax potential: 5/5 enough said.
2. Bath
A nice relaxing bath with the lights off and some candles
and some extremely bubbly bubble bath is a must. Close the door so you can’t hear what is going
on elsewhere in the house and just relax.
One of my absolute favourite bubble baths was Original Source Lavender..and
then they stopped making it. I haven’t found a
proper like for like replacement yet but Lush has a huge range of bath goodies
(I stay away from anything glittery). My 2 favourites are:
This is a luxurious bath melt that contains Sandalwood, oats, cocoa butter amont other things leaving your skin feeling soft and you smelling gorgeous. It comes in a handy Muslin cloth which you can use to wash with after the melt has melted!
Don't be fooled by the size, this is a small creamy bath melt that contains real flower petals along with Lavender and Chamomile oil. Perfect for a bath before bed time.
Cost: As little as £1 for some bubble bath up to how much you fancy spending on yourself for a luxurious treat. Lush one time use products are around £3 -£5. I'd also suggest a nice bath pillow, to really help you relax. Especially the Soap and Glory bath pillow from boots (£8) and is huge!
Effort: Running a bath and then dropping in your bath treat and not hard effort.
Relax potential: 4/5 I enjoy a bath but if it can take me a while to relax.
3. Listening to George Nascimento
My all time fail safe to relaxing is listening to a CD I bought years ago called A peaceful soak. No matter where I am I can put this on and listen to two songs in particular (In the Streaming Sunlight and Soothing Waters) I can feel my shoulders drop a little and my tension in my jaw ease off. This has worked countless times, it takes me out of my head and into a relaxed place, I can be feeling ill on a plane, in the midst of a potential panic attack or just struggling to sleep and this has never failed me. I have it on my mp3 player and carry it with me.
Cost: CD costs £2.72 from amazon
Effort: Once it's on your mp3/ipod just press play and you can be sitting on the bus, or snuggled up in bed and location doesn't matter
Relax potential: 5/5 always works, its like a trigger for me to relax now
I hope that if you are feeling stressed or just need some time out that one of these works for you. If you don't have any of these to hand and need a quick fix then take yourself to a room on your own, breathe in for 3 and out for 5, in for 4, out for 6 and so on. This forces your breathing to slow down as you have to exhale for longer than you breathe in. A well timed sniff of lavender essential oil (Boots £5.49) or dotted on your wrists also helps during tough spells.
Louise x
