How to relax? \ stacker news ~health

496 sats \ 6 comments \ @ChrisS 25 Jan health

I have a lot of life giving activities that I do but I wouldn't call any of them relaxing. Learning to code, learning a new song on the piano, playing soccer, teaching my kids new things, mediating, all make me feel great but require high amounts of mental focus. I love doing theses things and getting in states of flow and feel great afterwards. But inevitably I reach a point of my day where my mind is exhausted and I'm bored and just want to "relax". This usually leads to scrolling stacker.news/reddit and/or watching dumb videos on youtube. It does seem to relax me in the moment but afterwards I feel down.

So my question is what to do in these moments of mental exhaustion, how to relax? Is life about finding the mental strength to always be doing something productive, trying to be in the flow state as much as possible? Or are there things we can do that don't require a lot of brainpower and active thought to "unwind" and "relax" in a healthy manner?

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225 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshiplanet 25 Jan

👉👌

150 sats \ 2 replies \ @Turnspit_Dog 25 Jan

A friend of mine said something such as, "...you need to spend one hour per day outdoors taking a walk to relex and unwind. If you can't find an hour to spend outside per day, you need to spend eight hours tomorrow outdoors to figure out how you can spend one hour per day outside."

some info... https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ChrisS OP 25 Jan

Good advice, I usually try to do this a few times a week but its been cold and rainy where I live for a few weeks so this is definitely something i have been missing and probably part of my inability to relax. Thank you!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chrisswanda 25 Jan freebie

Strange. It's cold and rainy here too.... are you me?

115 sats \ 1 reply \ @Nuttall 25 Jan

Cat naps 20 minutes. Set your alarm and just slip in a cat nap.
Focus on your breath. If you're anxious your breath will be erratic. So paying attention to your breath will calm you regardless of the situation. For example I shot expert in the Army because I already had practiced yoga breathing, Pranayama. The mantra taught by the BRM, Basic Rifle Marksman, class was, "breathe in, breathe out and squeeze the trigger."
Stacker News only. If you don't have to invest sats, reward in sats and earn sats then all the likes just earn surveillance, advertisement or profile sales against you.

I used to write very long posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and I was leaving good ideas and energy behind. I'd feel exhausted from arguing and I'd feel drained from putting something out that maybe was not for everyone. Maybe it sucked, but I got nothing.

At least if I write something here that sucks I paid to do it and I at least believed it was worth putting out. Maybe it is helpful to one person or it shows another what crazy is like. So be it.

Hatha Yoga is good as it is forced and then meditation is helpful.
Don't watch dumb videos. Watch smart ones.
Before I came to work today I took a 20 minute nap and I felt better.

Thank you for writing about this. I hope some others will add their experience as well.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @ChrisS OP 25 Jan

Good stuff. I really like the "don't watch dumb videos, watch smart ones" comment.