Being able to relax is hugely important if you want to make sure you are living a full life and taking care of yourself as well as you can. If you are keen to look after your mental health in particular, you will find that a good approach towards relaxation is going to be vital. The good news is that you can always learn how to relax more fully and truly, and doing so could be one of the best things you have ever done for yourself.

With that in mind, in this post we are going to take a look at some of the things you might want to do and bear in mind when it comes to learning how to relax. If you can do even some of the following, you are bound to find that it will make a difference, so let’s see what you might want to think about here. Learning to relax could be the work of a lifetime, but it doesn’t have to be if you follow these tips.

Understanding The Failure To Relax

It’s really important to make sure that you understand why we generally fail to relax, as this will lie the secret to how to turn things around. It’s amazing what a difference this really can make, and in just knowing that you are able to fully relax, you’ll find that you learn a lot. So why is it that we generally struggle to relax as much as we could? It might actually be for a number of different reasons and causes.

For instance, very often it’s down to a sense of having to be over-productive all the time. This is something that many of us feel thanks to the way that the world is ordered, but the truth is that being busy all the time is not the best thing for you. You need your downtime, and it is not virtuous to work as much as you possibly can just for the sake of it.

There is also something known as chronic stress, which is when the body gets stuck in fight or flight mode, and this obviously means that you are not going to feel relaxed. If you have that, combined with a post-capitalist guilt around stress, you are bound to find yourself struggling to relax.

You may also be merely overstimulated - many of us are, and it’s a major cause of fatigue as well as not being able to calm down and relax. So it’s something you are certainly going to find really important to consider if you want to try and relax more effectively. All of this will also require a decent amount of awareness, because you need to know in the first case that you are currently not relaxing as well as you could or should.

So what are some of the things you can actually do to relax more fully and effectively, and how might you start to make this more a part of your life?

Relaxing The Body

Very often, the best attempts at relaxing will begin - and end - with relaxing the body itself. If you are able to keep the body as relaxed as possible, you’ll find that the mind usually follows suit. The same is also true in reverse, but most people find it easier, most of the time, to relax the body first. As it happens, there are countless ways you can do this, and you should find yourself being able to do it relatively easily and simply all in all.

One very strong technique for fully relaxing the body is something known as progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR. With this technique, you effectively tense and relax different muscle groups in the body, beginning at the toes and working up until you have done the whole body. This is incredibly effective, and usually means that you will be very relaxed at the end of it.

You might also find breathwork to be helpful. With this, you take some purposeful, deep breaths, and this signals the body to relax. You might try the 4-7-8 technique, or perhaps box breathing - where you breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, breath out for four and hold for four. This can help your body to thoroughly relax, and it’s quite incredible how well it really works.

There are lots of other things that can help too. You might want to take up a yoga routine or engage in some daily stretch work, for instance. These are all the kinds of things that are going to help your body to relax even further, and it means that you can loosen your tight muscles and improve your circulation considerably. At the same time, a little bit of self-massage (or booking in for the occasional professional massage) can work wonders too.

Sometimes just taking a warm bath or having a long, luxurious shower can help. It’s all about making sure that you are getting your body nice and relaxed as thoroughly and deeply as you can, and doing this regularly enough that the effect really takes hold. If you can do that, you’ll find that you are much more likely to be able to relax fully and for it to really make a difference not just to your body, but to your mind as well.

That being said, it’s also worth knowing what you can do to relax your mind in its own right too.

Relaxing The Mind

In many respects, people often find relaxing the mind to be more of a challenge than relaxing the body, and it’s certainly true that you might need to think about it in a slightly different way. In one way, however, thinking is very much the problem, and you’ll find that there is a lot to be said for simply trying not to think too much. This doesn’t mean that you can force your mind to stop, but it does mean you might want to try and calm it a little. A lot of this comes down to some useful techniques you can try anywhere, which we will look at some examples of below.

Overall, the main thing that you might want to try out is mindfulness and meditation. The more fully aware you are of the present moment, especially what is happening within you at any time, the better. You will feel much more able to deal with whatever is happening around you too, and it’s going to mean that you are a lot more likely to relax fully. This works best if you have a regular practice of it, so you might want to set up a regular time to meditate and to be mindful. Then, before you know it, you will find yourself naturally and organically being a lot more mindful in your daily life. And this is linked to very much having lower levels of stress, so it’s well worth making sure you are doing this.

There are however lots of other ways to relax the mind, and it’s not all about meditation and mindfulness. You might also find yourself wanting to get your thoughts out as best as you can. A good way to do that is journaling, which is a process that a lot of people are going to find really helpful, and one which again you benefit from most if you are doing it regularly. A regular journaling practice is therefore a fantastic thing to be able to do, and something you might want to start up as soon as possible.

In general, it is also helpful to try and limit the amount of stimulation you are experiencing in your daily life. It’s a good idea to try out some moments of silence, and ideally these moments will be regular - no screens or music or anything else, but just stillness on its own. You might perhaps add in something small like a game of cards or minesweeper or something, but generally keeping it minimal is the key here. You will find that this helps you greatly in being able to keep your mind as relaxed as you want it to be.

It can also help if you engage in some kind of flow activity. That might include a hobby like playing an instrument or cooking, or reading or drawing. Whatever it is, just the fact of being in a flow state can be really good for you, and is the kind of thing you might want to pursue in your daily life more and more.

However you do it, quietening and looking after the mind is a great way to relax more, and you will find it really important to make sure you are doing this.

Those are just some of the things that you might want to think about when it comes to learning how to fully and truly relax. As long as you have done those regularly, it’s going to help for sure.