Rests, breaks, relaxations, and vacations play an important role in our individual health and wellbeing and can help determine what good or evil we contribute towards peace, harmony, and progress of our families in particular and the world in general. Earlier, we discussed rests and breaks. We now look at relaxations and vacations.
Relaxation can be described as a temporary state of bodily, mental, and spiritual freedom. Different degrees of relaxation are desirable for different situations, conditions, and places in life. If relaxation is freedom, we want to examine freedom from what?
Life is full of potential stressors. Your work can stress you up. The sight of your rich neighbor’s car can stress you up. The presence of a rival throws you into competitive mode. In these days of heightened materialism (good, bad, or indifferent), many of us are stressed up by anxiety to acquire and own things. The Yorubas say “makanjuola” don’t be hasty for wealth. We do live in a culture of haste that may keep precipitating stress in our lives.
The individual regularly contends between positives and negatives, love and hate, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, freedom and bondage, hope and despair, etc. and sometimes we are simply stressed up because we feel disconnected from what might be our origin and what might be our end, the stress of uncertainty.
Some common tension builders include problems, lack, rivalry, enmities, anxiety, and ignorance. It is absolutely important that we learn how to relax and apply relaxation skills timely every now and then.
Some relaxation techniques are simply distractions from stressors and others give a more lasting reward in overcoming the effects of stress and making us better prepared against future stressors. Distractions from stressors include pleasures, fun, laughter, music, dancing, hobbies, and interests. Stress overcomers include prayer and meditation, exercises and body and mind techniques such as zen yoga, love and relationships, problem solving skills, time and money management skills, and virtues including contentment and gratitude.
”There is no single relaxation technique that is best for everyone. When choosing a relaxation technique, consider your specific needs, preferences, fitness level, and the way you tend to react to stress. The right relaxation technique is the one that resonates with you, fits your lifestyle, and is able to focus your mind and interrupt your everyday thoughts in order to elicit the relaxation response. In many cases, you may find that alternating or combining different techniques will keep you motivated and provide you with the best results”.
We will look at different ways of relaxing but before that, let us consider this biblical advice: “don’t let the sun go down on your anger”. We need to avoid harboring a state of stress (tiredness, envy, hatred, vengeance, greed, anxiety, panic, etc.) for too long. This perhaps is the best prophylaxis. Your neighbor that you quarreled with today should be surprised to see you bounce back as friendly as ever the next morning.A society whose members are healthy in body, mind, and spirit will be seen as a society of peace and freedom as opposed to a society or strife and bondage.
culled from: thenationonlineng.net
No comments:
Post a Comment