Clock Tower at Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA on Lake Union. In the background, are some historical boats that have been restored and saved from Seattle’s maritime history. There are pleasure boats, fishing trawlers and so on. It’s a treat to actually board these historical boats and vessels, to see how fishing and pleasures trips were taken, what life was like. As in all parts of life, they had schedules to keep, time to track.
How do we track time in these days? Certainly with our smartphones, tablets, ereaders and apps. There are jobs, traffic, families on top of eating healthy, exercising and all the while doctors, nurses are telling us to keep stress out of our lives. For our health. How ironic is that? The very things we do stress us to the point where we need to find ways to de-stress.
Finding little ways throughout the day to de-stress takes some time and effort but it can be done, with practice. Traffic stresses everyone out. Instead of sitting and fuming right along with your car and the hundreds of other drivers, it would be a perfect time to try meditation. I don’t mean crossing your legs and arms while humming a word. Instead, try deep and slow breathing. Take a deep breath, slowly, hold it and count five or ten seconds, then slowly let your breath out. Think of something that relaxes you: a sports game (football, baseball, etc), running or jogging, a sunrise/sunset. You would be surprised how well this works!
Finding time to relax sometimes takes effort while we are living our busy lives. Take joy in the things you do, be grateful you and your kids are healthy enough to go on errands, ballet lessons, soccer practice. Smile more, be grateful.
Brick ONeil 