I feel strange saying this, but I thought I knew how to relax. Between self-care Sundays and cozy afternoons in my book nook, I consider myself to have a pretty balanced life. After a long day at work, I always know just what I need to let the day go and ease the stress in my body.
It took a weeklong vacation for me to realize that I may know how to relax, but only after a long day of productivity.
Unless I’ve accomplished one of my goals for the week or checked everything off my to-do list, trying to relax is nearly an impossible task. You can imagine how this made vacationing strangely uncomfortable.
And I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
learning how to relax
My family and I were spending the week in Nags Head, North Carolina. We rented the cutest beach cottage surrounded by trees and the incessant noise of cicadas. It had a little yard for the dogs and was just a few blocks from the beach. This was our reward for selling nearly all of our possessions and moving out of our home of five years.
We were pretty wound up going into this vacation, to say the least.
During the first couple of days, there was always one of us saying, “I don’t know what to do with myself” or “I feel weird, I don’t know how to relax” while pacing the hallways or reorganizing the cabinets of the Airbnb.
Even on vacation, we didn’t know how to relax. We weren’t the only family struggling with this either. Between the rude customers in line at the coffee shop and the intense, rushed drivers in the parking lot, it was clear that we could all use a little help in learning how to relax.
This seems to be a problem in the States more than anywhere else. We don’t know how to slow down. There’s this need to “deserve” rest and relaxation. How tiring; how sad.
Really though, what a strange concept when observed from afar.
relaxation around the world
As I’m writing this, I’m in Florence, Italy where weekends are hardly a concept. Life is enjoyed every day here, leisure is not reserved just for Saturdays and Sundays.
Coming from the United States, this seemed like such a foreign concept to me. What do you mean you don’t feel guilty relaxing? All you’ve done today is walk your dog!
I love it! What a beautiful way to live.
Back to Nags Head, we did begin to relax towards the end of the week. It took many walks on the beach, heart-to-hearts by the water, and sunsets on the sound, but we eventually found comfort in slowing down. We learned how to relax.
When learning how to relax, I found it helpful to also learn about how to regulate the nervous system, I wrote a post on it here.
