Your nature will reveal your perfect approach to learn to relax
If you have a lot of kapha dosha qualities (see a description of the doshas here), you may well be good at relaxing your body and mind. If, however, like me and many people in the U.S., you have a dominance of vata and/or pitta qualities, you likely don’t know how to relax. Vatas tend to move for its own sake and pittas turn everything into achievements. I’ve often said if you put me on a desert island I’d build a condo. But while some stress is good, never truly relaxing is hard on your nervous system. So you should learn to relax.
Explore your nature for relaxation clues
Effective relaxation is generally not vegging on the couch watching Real Housewives reruns with a bag of chips on your stomach, although watching TV can be very relaxing in small doses. Still, you need to examine your own nature to find what kind of activity is genuinely relaxing to you. For example, I’m sitting on my couch watching TV right now — while simultaneously writing this blog. Heaven forbid I should ever watch television all by itself. That’s productive but not really relaxing. I used to do mixed media collage using scraps and found objects. Hugely fun but I started making collages as gifts, so the quality of the artwork became more important than the fun of doing it. See. I built a condo.
My relaxation Eureka moment
What I needed was a pastime that had no purpose except fun. One I could not turn into an achievement. Eureka. What could have less purpose than something you slave over for hours and then scrape back into the box where it falls back into pieces? Jigsaw puzzles turned out to be my relaxation secret weapon. And they have the added advantage of not being word-oriented since words are my work and I’m usually standing while doing them because my puzzles are so big, so I’m not sitting as i do while i work.
Find your relaxing secret
What about you? A lovely, slow stroll outside is great for lots of people (as long as it’s just fun and not an exercise goal). Gardening is great because it gets your hands in the dirt, but again getting 300 bulbs in the ground at once is seldom relaxation. Paddling in the ocean, knitting, petting a dog; explore your qualities to find the secret of your relaxation. Then come tell us what you learn.