How do you unwind/relax?

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heartbroken

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For the last couple of months I have been feeling the stress of the economic downturn, customers cancelling contracts due to their own misfortune, employees looking at me to be able to feed their families, day to day costs spiraling out of control, you know the story.

So in any case, this week I started feeling sick, lightheaded, drowsy with a constant headache. Went to the doctor this morning, apparently I have stage 3 hypertension. My blood pressure is so high, I am ready to pop an artery and start squirting like a fountain, Quentin Tarantino style. Doctor recons it's due to stress and I should perhaps go lie down for about a month.

I exercise 5 mornings a week, ride my mountain bike every weekend and take the dog for a walk at least twice a week. I try and buy whole foods and I prepare my meals as healthy as possible. But it seems like none of it's working. I never seem to shut off during workouts, my mind keeps reverting to type and going through problems and solutions. Even though I manage the physical aspects of relaxation, I can quite get the hang of mentally letting go.

So how do you guys do it? How do you relax or unwind from the stresses of day to day life, your job, family, barking dogs etc? Yoga? Meditation? Ritual sacrifices?

tl;dr - How the actual fck do you relax?
 
What type of company do you own if I may ask. Might help to give some context.

At home I relax by not wearing a shirt and raiding the fridge.

Generally I hate being at home. The stress of reading what's happening in SA, the economy, the wars in the rest of the world, not being in my career where I should be, comparing myself with others, facebook, not having options financially and relationship wise.

Sure work can be stressful and clients very unreasonable but strangely in the quiet moments at work I get I do feel more relaxed than at home, strange as it seems.

Before driving to work in the mornings I am very stressed. But the drive somehow makes me more and more relaxed.
 
skimread said:
What type of company do you own if I may ask. Might help to give some context.
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A small software dev company, 6 employees, specializing in the financial services industry.

skimread said:
Generally I hate being at home. The stress of reading what's happening in SA, the economy, the wars in the rest of the world, not being in my career where I should be, comparing myself with others, facebook, not having options financially and relationship wise.
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Pretty much copy and paste, this sums up my general feeling 100%

Shalin_ZN said:
I use my right hand mostly...
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Well, a man can only release so much before ending up back at square one.
 
saor said:
Beer http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/651426-The-Craft-Beer-Thread/page96
...and meditation :). If I can get drop it all for even ten minutes and take a few deep breaths I'm usually quite chill afterwards.
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satanboy said:
I shoot people in the face with a shotgun.
Click to expand...

Shalin_ZN said:
I use my right hand mostly...
Click to expand...

Le^stat said:
whiskey and spingbokkies...
sometimes red wine...
learning java and playing wow...
Click to expand...

So, alcohol, jerking off and violence?

The meditation thing does jack squat for me, I sit there and get pissed about the things I should be doing.
 
heartbroken said:
So, alcohol, jerking off and violence?
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And I don't bother with the news :). It's just too skewed toward doom and gloom. Get a few podcasts you're interested in for the drive home. I'd much rather arrive home thinking about something cool than having listened to more *** news.
 
I was going to say mountain biking :whistle:


But I dont think it matters what you do what matters is how you do it Im betting you do your riding in a similar manner as you work. What I like to do is break the "franticness" of doing something so deliberately slow down, put some music on while loading your stuff wander around aimlessly etc. During the ride make sure you stop and just admire a few things even if its just a bug watch it for 10min going about its business.

I struggle with the same issue its hard to get yourself out of that state but its also very needed.
 
Last edited:
tbh lately the only thing that works is working harder. i.e. Getting sht done so that I can go home knowing I'm a step ahead of the workload. Nothing worse than trying to fall asleep knowing there is a mountain of crises waiting for me in the morning.
 
heartbroken said:
For the last couple of months I have been feeling the stress of the economic downturn, customers cancelling contracts due to their own misfortune, employees looking at me to be able to feed their families, day to day costs spiraling out of control, you know the story.

So in any case, this week I started feeling sick, lightheaded, drowsy with a constant headache. Went to the doctor this morning, apparently I have stage 3 hypertension. My blood pressure is so high, I am ready to pop an artery and start squirting like a fountain, Quentin Tarantino style. Doctor recons it's due to stress and I should perhaps go lie down for about a month.

I exercise 5 mornings a week, ride my mountain bike every weekend and take the dog for a walk at least twice a week. I try and buy whole foods and I prepare my meals as healthy as possible. But it seems like none of it's working. I never seem to shut off during workouts, my mind keeps reverting to type and going through problems and solutions. Even though I manage the physical aspects of relaxation, I can quite get the hang of mentally letting go.

So how do you guys do it? How do you relax or unwind from the stresses of day to day life, your job, family, barking dogs etc? Yoga? Meditation? Ritual sacrifices?

tl;dr - How the actual fck do you relax?
Click to expand...

You need at least, bare minimum, 2weeks away from what's causing the stress to just start relaxing.

So book 3 weeks away somewhere.
 
I have been struggling to switch off as well and I can never get at least 6 hours of sleep.
I have been on sleeping pills for the last week so far but last night was my first time in the week without those pills and I feel a bit better, more energy through the day...

Anyway... I think that it's the type of job that some of us have where we have our minds are always in a state of either analyzing or strategizing.
Yeah 2 weeks will probably help but then we are still worried that something at work might break or you missed out on something important and whatnot.

A change in personality/mindset might change the way you approach things?
 
Beachless said:
What I like to do is break the "franticness" of doing something so deliberately slow down, put some music on while loading your stuff wander around aimlessly etc. During the ride make sure you stop and just admire a few things even if its just a bug watch it for 10min going about its business.

I struggle with the same issue its hard to get yourself out of that state but its also very needed.
Click to expand...

Jip, I ride like I stole it. It's essentially the same route every weekend trying to beat the clock from last week. The thing is in idle moments my mind always wanders back to stressful rubbish. I have been wanting to go into the country side for a 'adventure weekend' and just ride my MTB and 4x4 around all weekend for no particular reason, but never got round to it.

HavocXphere said:
tbh lately the only thing that works is working harder. i.e. Getting sht done so that I can go home knowing I'm a step ahead of the workload. Nothing worse than trying to fall asleep knowing there is a mountain of crises waiting for me in the morning.
Click to expand...

I also really struggle to go to sleep at night knowing I left something undone. Thing is, I will never get everything done, that's just the nature of the industry, but how do you separate from all that and take a breath.

Chevron said:
You need at least, bare minimum, 2weeks away from what's causing the stress to just start relaxing.
So book 3 weeks away somewhere.
Click to expand...

Will looks like you and the doctor agree. Go lie down for a month. I am not sure that it's possible right now though.
 
CamiKaze said:
I have been struggling to switch off as well and I can never get at least 6 hours of sleep.
I have been on sleeping pills for the last week so far but last night was my first time in the week without those pills and I feel a bit better, more energy through the day...

Anyway... I think that it's the type of job that some of us have where we have our minds are always in a state of either analyzing or strategizing.
Yeah 2 weeks will probably help but then we are still worried that something at work might break or you missed out on something important and whatnot.

A change in personality/mindset might change the way you approach things?
Click to expand...

I know hey, somehow these things creep into your dreams and pop up as nightmares and you wake up exhausted. Not sure about changing personality, but I suppose a mindset change you can kind of force onto yourself by 'training' your thoughts.
 
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