The Fine Art of Relaxing

Today as I listened to those around me there seemed to be a developing theme for the day. The morning started with reading my email as I usually do before work while drinking my morning coffee. One email I receive every day is Turning Point by Dr. David Jeremiah. It is a daily on-line devotional. The theme of this morning’s devotional was Crazy Busy.

In his book, CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap, Edward M. Hallowell wrote about the moment he knew he had crossed the dark side from busy to crazy busy. It was when he lost his temper at a rotary dial phone while on vacation. His cell phone wouldn’t work, and he just about went nuts waiting for the dial to return to start with every number. Then, calming down, he timed the process. The entire dialing process took all of eleven seconds. “What a fool I had become,” he wrote. “I had become a man in a hurry even when I had no need to hurry.”

After finishing up with a few things at home I headed into work and there was a salesperson waiting to see me when I arrived. She comes to our business once every month or two for a visit. We talked about my vacation a bit and then she related a story about their family trip to the Wisconsin Dells with her husband and two kids. They planned carefully for their trip time wise and financially before they left. She said everything went fine for the first two days because they were in one place but then she said that’s when the fun ended and it went from vacation to crazy busy even on vacation.

They spent the third day of their vacation hitting every tourist trap up and down the streets in the Wisconsin Dell area. They denied themselves nothing. They spent more than they had planned on stuff they hadn’t planned than on what they had planned. She said it was like the whole family was in a frenzy going from one thing to the next. It was not what they had planned for their vacation. They came home frazzled, broke and exhausted.

When I started on the work I had planned for the day I managed to get a few things done on my list but spent most of the day “putting out fires” as my husband refers to taking care of the urgent but not necessarily the important.

Some days we are too busy “putting out fires” in our crazy busy world that we neglect what’s most important-time for ourselves and our family. It’s important to build some solitude in your daily routine and rest. On the days when my husband and I get home late from work it is hard to give up the time for the things I enjoy and opt for the rest I need.

When my boys were young one of their favorite things to do was to hop up into Grandpa’s chair if he had vacated it long enough for the boys to notice. They loved to lean back and stretch out pretending to be just like Grandpa in his chair. Our grandson has started to play the same game. I hope that the next generation will learn how to slow down and enjoy the moment better than this generation does, at least that is my hope.

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Ambiance

 

Is it a feeling, a look, an emotion that we think of when we speak of ambiance?  Each of us have a place we go to or a specific area in our homes or surroundings that make us feel warm, welcome and relaxed. 

For some, ambiance requires color, soft and warm.  Others require candle lite rooms with fragrance filling the air and soft music playing in the background.  My adult children need a technology infused room to have the perfect ambiance whether in a group or alone.  They don’t like quiet. For some the perfect ambiance is a place you can be alone and for others they require companionship.

For me the place with perfect ambiance depends on the season.  In winter the place with the ambiance that draws me in is a room with a fire burning in the fireplace with a cozy chair pulled up along side it with an ottoman to prop up my feet while I read a good book.  There is a table nearby with a good reading lamp and a place for my hot cup of coffee.

Summertime, ambiance is a whole other feeling.  I take in the soft gentle breezes off the lake as I sit in my Adirondack chair and watch the water gently coming ashore and then retreating.  The rhythm of the waves is therapeutic. 

The garden in the springtime provides an atmosphere of anticipation.  I watch daily for the emerging perennial flowers as the sun gently warms the earth and everything is a different shade of spring green.  There is a hopeful ambiance in spring.

Ambiance in fall for me is elusive.  I am drawn in by the changing colors in the trees only to discover the temperature is dropping and the cold winds chasing me indoors.  On the perfect sunlight warm fall day I could stay outdoors for hours walking and listening to the crunching sounds beneath my feet and watch as the birds start gathering for their trip south.  As the leaves lose their colors and the grass it’s green I know it is time to put the summer to rest and start pursuing a cozier place indoors.

What ambiance calls you to a quiet place where you can wind down from a busy paced life?  For me it usually involves quiet and nature.  If water is available nearby all the better. My kids would tell me that I am getting old and spend too much time thinking.

I haven’t clued them in on the fact that some days I like to just sit, listen to my surroundings and shut off all this world’s thoughts.