Have you ever tried to have a fixed activity, that gives you pleasure to do?

Usually, when someone wants to relax and reduce stress, people tend to take a day off and spend it doing nothing, where nothing includes being in the sofa, watching TV, not having hours to wake up, to eat or to sleep… resuming: having no rules!

However, some people prefer to relax by doing something. I am one of them J Doing nothing makes me bored, and tired of being stopped!

Having a nice activity, which you enjoy doing and that is not related to your work, helps you to relax and reduce stress, to run away from the rush ours of the day.

I found it out by chance.

As I told you before in this post, I started painting very soon, when I was a kid, and I just enjoyed drawing and painting. However, as I grew up and started hard studying, and later working, I found out that the thing that I wanted the most was to arrive to Wednesday afternoon, and go to my painting class.

I had a French teacher, who imposed these great rules:

1. switch off your cell phone – this is very important, because it breaks the link to the day-by-day world, and help to create an atmosphere where your work does not reach. However, sometimes it is important to be reachable so, in these cases that you cannot switch you cell phone off, just put it in silence, so that you do not disturb the other people that are in the same room as you (and you cell phone!) are.
   
2. always be on time – if you arrive too late, you’ll have a shorter class, and you wount be satisfied with the time you passed there; if you extent the time of your class, you risk to be bored and tired of what you are doing. Remember that you want to spend a good time, not a boring time! So, if it was short and good, you’ll want to come back, and you’ll spend the week thinking of your next class J
   
3. don't speak much, nor very loud – maintaining a quiet atmosphere helps to concentrate in your work, and have better results
   
4. put some music – music helps to inspire J put some relaxing background music, not too loud, and relax. Ear jazz, swing, classical music…
   
5. always have a cup of tea – this is important not because of the tea, but because of the pause. Pausing during your work is important so that you do not get tired of it, and also allows to have a different look at your work, from another angle.

If you follow these rules, you’ll be absorbed by what you are doing, you’ll relax doing something, and, the best of all, at the end you did something, you produced something which you can be proud of.

With time you will also notice that you are not tired from work after these activities, you still have time to go home and have a nice dinner, you are not in a hurry to go anywhere and your heart beats more slowly :)

You’ll also start having other interests, other themes of conversation, and you’ll be interested in finding more and more, as you are doing it not because you are obliged to, but because you like it!