How to Relax

Do you find yourself in a tizzy? Are you running in so many directions that your feet have become tangled? Have you gotten yourself into that all too familiar position of too many people expecting too much of only one you? Wait. Are you asking me? Oh, well then, YES! I haven't even blogged in over a week...and that's usually one of my ways of getting unraveled. Actually, I've been concentrating a bit more on another mode of relaxation.

In a meeting about 9 months ago, as a 'get to know you' question, we were asked about our favorite music group. As the question worked itself around the room I was having a huge struggle trying to decide my favorite. Of course I worked it into a stressful excercise because I just couldn't decide who to say. After all doesn't music say a lot about who you are? Would I say the Stones or U2? Or would I mention some of my new favorites like Sufjan Stevens or Ghostland Observatory? But what about Johnny Cash or The Possum. And how can I sleep at night if I didn't say The Doors. Finally I decided that the only one and true answer would have to be the one who has been a favorite since before I can remember...Johann Sebastian Bach. I don't care if it is the harpsichord, guitar, organ or what...I can't get enough! Listening to his compositions actually make me want to pray harder, meditate and inspire me to be a new person. Yes...it's that dramatic. My husband gets this same effect with yoga.

My charge today is that each of us find the thing that makes us decompress...forces you to stop the madness for at least an hour. It might be well thought out and inclusive prayer for someone else. It could be a physical excercise that allows you to meditate on your mental well being. It could be hand writing a letter to a friend or family member that focuses on that person and how you feel about them. Maybe you sit down with a good Bible study and learn or relearn the depth of God's love for you, God's child. Whatever it is, do it. Take the time you need to take care of yourself. Me? I'm going now to find something with a cello.