- Visit a remote island
With the stresses of everyday life, routines, month-end commitments, time constraints and more, everyone needs to break away every once in a while, to regroup, reassess, relax and rejuvenate the mind, body and soul. While you could visit a popular destination, there’s no place more relaxing than a remote island. However, remote islands are difficult to come by, since tourists flock to these breathtaking destinations – but Thanda Island is the last of the hidden gems. It’s a luxury private island resort equipped with only the finest, most luxurious amenities including private sailing trips, swimming with whale sharks, snorkeling, scuba diving and even yoga on the beach – now what more could you want!
- Book a Spa Day
There is nothing like a good spa day where you can retreat to a place of pampering and relaxation. Take the time to look at all the packages they have on offer, since some spas offer full days with all the ‘bells and whistles’, including breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch, use of steam and sauna rooms, pools and gyms. But a half day or a single treatment won’t hurt either as long as you come back feeling rejuvenated after your ‘me time’.
- Go for a picnic
Plan a picnic at a park, beach, forest or anywhere your heart desires, either for yourself or for a group of friends to reconnect and relax. Your spirit is rejuvenated when you’re surrounded by nature – open fields, green pastures and stunning scenery as nature is known to have healing powers. And, of course, being surrounded by your favorite people is refreshing and good for your mental health since it’s unlikely you won’t be laughing, chatting and having a great time.
- Reading a good book in the sun
Reading can be one of the best ways to relax with very little effort and energy. Reading is also known to reduce stress levels, while improving your knowledge. Even if you’ve never been the biggest fan of reading, do yourself and give it a try. Purchase a bestseller in a genre that’s of interest to you or visit your local library and do some browsing. Reading a good story and learning something new is refreshing and rather exhilarating.
- Spend time with good people
Spending time with positive people who bring good energy and add to your well-being instead of draining you helps to uplift and energize your mindset. Seeing good people having a good time, relaxing and bouncing ideas off of them is inspiring, while hearing their perspective on various current affairs or trending topic is interesting and educational.
- Exercising
Yoga is a wonderful way to connect with the body, spiritually and mentally and is known to assist with the healing of many ailments and stress. A great stress reliever is a good strenuous exercise routine. If you already have an exercise program, try something new instead of doing the same routine over and over again. Try dancing, swimming, high intensity training or boxing class where you can release some of your stress. Learn to do breathing exercises, this helps to reduce blood pressure and anxiety.
- Meditation
We often feel guilty when we take time out to just be quiet in our own space, thoughts of ‘I should be doing something’ often creeps into the mind. We all need to learn some form of meditation where we can be quiet and focused on ourselves and our thoughts. This helps us to get back to our source and helps us to see things a lot clearer.
- Explore a new hobby
We never know our hidden talents until we start exploring new ideas to focus on. Building a puzzle for instance can be one of the most relaxing simple hobbies that you can always find time to do, or you can push yourself a little further and explore something completely new. Look around your home and find little painting projects to keep you busy or reupholster a piece of old furniture to get your creative juices flowing. You can also find out about clubs in your area, perhaps ones that can teach you a new skill such as sketching, needlework or something that you have had a past interest in, this can be relaxing but at the same time so rewarding. Starting a family tree is another way of destressing and drawing new interests in family and history, there are just so many options out there.
- Give back to life
Find out about projects where you can go and invest some time in helping others. Maybe visit an orphanage, old age home, cleaning up the area or beaches. We don’t realize that giving back can be such a healing, relaxing and rejuvenating experience. Helping others while we help ourselves, is so rewarding, bringing us back to reality and allowing us to grow in appreciation for what we have.
- Visit places of interest
Take a day out to visit museums, art galleries, beautiful gardens, tea rooms or list as many special places along the way and explore what each of their stories are. History, beautiful colors and open spaces have a way of restoring one’s inner spirit.