A Guide to Relax

It's a vast term on a vast canvas of interpretation. Anyone who has a spec
of imagination can create a relaxing environment for him or her self. First of
all take a piece of paper and a pen and try and clear your mind as possible,
sit in the most comfortable place and position you can be in.
Once you have settled in, think back to when you were a child and think of
one thing that makes you happy, something simple: a smell, a sound, a
colour; and hold this thought and write it down. Now try to imagine a time
in your adolescence where you felt safe and warm and think of what is
bringing this feeling and take from this place the element you feel; it can be
again something simple or all something more complicated: a story, a
song, a book, a sport. Try to extrapolate this element and write it down on
your piece of paper.
Now try and think of something in your present time that makes you smile
at the thought of it. Write it down.Now as you take these three elements
you have written down try to imagine them embodied in a ceremony. A
relaxing ceremony. As if you where creating your own perfume and you put
as much of each element to create the perfect balance of smells.
Each one of us has a unique way of imagining something or relating to it:
we can be someone who is more connected to their body and has a lot of
physical experiences more than mind experiences and vice versa; we can
be someone who is connected to their sense of smell or hearing more than
others. And this is one of the first steps to relaxing: recognizing what can
work for you.
Personally when I try and do this exercise I imagine the sound of a
crackling fire, then I picture a book my mother used to read to me and then
I imagine the light of candles. Now this is one of my "mixes" but there can
be dozens if you just open your mind and then learn how to work with
them. From my personal mix I can create an environment for myself to "go
to" when I need a bit of reassurance and relax. I can use it as a simple
meditation: go on YouTube and look up the sound of the crackling fire,
light candles and read the book I imagined; I can lay in the bath tub and
put candle light around it and read my book.
There are lots of ways of interpreting what we decide to take as elements.
If one of your elements is a sport you could try and practice it while
connecting the other elements: maybe you imagined a song you can play
on your iPod or a book that you could audiotape. When life gets heavy all
you can do is think of the light and small things that bring you up again.
I take as an example something from my childhood and then progressively
come to the present because I believe that we are composed of all these
stages in life and neither one is more or less important than the other.
The moment you decide to create your mixture remember that the reason
why you are doing so is probably because you need to release some pent
up tension, stress but I can also be anger, fear or any number of emotions.

on your iPod or a book that you could audiotape. When life gets heavy all
you can do is think of the light and small things that bring you up again.
I take as an example something from my childhood and then progressively
come to the present because I believe that we are composed of all these
stages in life and neither one is more or less important than the other.
The moment you decide to create your mixture remember that the reason
why you are doing so is probably because you need to release some pent
up tension, stress but I can also be anger, fear or any number of emotions.
And often one of the elements that can help release is a physical activity.
Whether you are a person who is more prone to other elements or not I
strongly recommend that one of your elements is a physical one: it can be
dancing in your underwear, swimming, running, walking, doing yoga or
even just stretching. Often stress occurs when we don't have an outlet to
all our thought and emotions and we don't have the time or the energy to
let them out and being present in your body, working with it can be the
easiest outlet of all. We often don't realize that our body is the one things
that holds us together, it's the one who endures all of our emotions and
keeps going, so don't forget to include it.