I realized a shocking fact. I was terrible at relaxing. I didn’t know how to relax. That made me think about what relaxation means. Today, I will talk about it.
How to relax?
Sometimes, we want to relax in our lives. Many stressful things exhaust us. They make us want a peaceful life.
However, there is a problem. We sometimes don’t know how to relax.
Relaxation doesn’t mean doing nothing. Empty times make us bored. We don’t want such boredom. We want some activities.
That makes us think about what relaxation means.
Although some might associate it with taking it easy, we cannot sustain it for long.
For example, even though coffee calms us down, we cannot drink it for several hours. Even though a hot spring eases us, we cannot soak in it for hours. In my case, I like walking, cycling, and seeing the sea, but 30 minutes to an hour is enough.
In other words, they are short-term distractions, not relaxing activities.
The necessity of relaxing activities
Relaxing activities allow us to spend many hours on them. It is the same as exciting activities in terms of being able to concentrate on them for hours. Relaxing ones differ only in that they calm down instead of getting enthusiastic.
Although we know many exciting activities, we often don’t know relaxing ones. That would be one of the reasons we are poor at relieving our tenses.
That is why we want to know what relaxation means and what relaxation activities are.
However, we sometimes don’t know them.
Today, I will explain the meaning of relaxation and how to spend peaceful hours without boredom. This logic might provide you with a more peaceful life.
Judging by whether we pursue rewards
To understand relaxation, I will introduce two classifications.
The first is a perspective on whether to seek results. From this perspective, there are two kinds of activities, as follows:
- Activities that yield rewards as a result: We do them for those results. They are usually the main activities.
- Activities that are themselves rewarding: We do them for the sake of the activity, not the results. They are usually distractions, not main activities.
This would be our usual perspective.
A problem with empathy
However, this classification has a problem. If we have intense empathy, it will not calm our empathy.
Even if we increase the time spent on the latter, if we use empathy, our nerves are not at ease. This is because empathy excites us.
For example, if we are empathic, we often enjoy emotional stories. Although they entertain us, they tense our nerves.
It means we cannot rest at any time. Whether we seek results or not, we engage only in exciting activities. Both make us want a peaceful life.
In other words, this classification will not work for us. We need another perspective.
The most relaxing activities
The second perspective can work if we want to ease our nerves.
We divide our activities into empathic and logical ones based on the first perspective, as follows:
- (The most exciting) Empathic activities that yield rewards as a result: An example is an activity with a clear, fascinating goal.
- Empathic activities that are themselves rewarding: An example is enjoying emotional activities.
- Logical activities that yield rewards as a result: An example is trying to solve problems logically.
- (The most relaxing) Logical activities that are themselves rewarding: An example is following curiosity.
Logical activities cool us down while empathic ones heat us up. We can choose logical activities that are themselves rewarding. They are the most relaxing activities we can concentrate on for hours.
Learning new things with curiosity
A typical example is learning reasons and principles with curiosity. In this state, we are calm, don’t get excited, and enjoy the activities. It stimulates our intellect.
Perhaps we can love them when we get logical. It allows us to recognize our ignorance toward ourselves and the world. That motivates us.
In my case, when I was a university student, I often wanted to live in a big bookstore. I didn’t know how to live at that time. However, there were many ways of living and rules for success in a big bookstore. That stimulated my interest.
I have been in a similar state recently. Rationality fascinates me. Now I want to live in a house of rationality if such a thing exists.
I don’t get bored; have fun. In addition, it eases my nerves. It would be an example of a logical activity that is itself rewarding.
Conclusion
That is the meaning of relaxation and how to spend peaceful hours without boredom.
We can focus on logical activities that are themselves rewarding.
This logic might provide you with more relaxation.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
