THE ART OF RELAXATION

As winter starts to kick in, we all start to feel a bit lackluster and start craving time to ourselves. I definitely consider myself an introvert and I gain my energy from spending time on my own, so I like to think I'm a bit of an expert on me time. We all know the cliche technique of sitting in a bath, surrounded by candles, listening to whale sounds, yadda yadda yadda, but here are a few techniques that you might not have thought of.

1. Colouring - I feel like this one is becoming a sort of trend at the minute, but colouring books for adults are real and they are actually pretty darn cool. Get yourself on Amazon and you can get a full book of designs for less than £4. They're used for practicing mindfulness and, whilst 'practicing mindfulness' sounds like a whole bunch of bull, they're really good at just distracting you and getting you to focus on just one thing.

2. Weaving - This is something new that I've picked up from Kate's blog and Elsie and Emma's blog, and I love it so much more than I ever thought I would. It's so easy to lose yourself in weaving because it requires enough concentration for you to forget about anything else, but is easy enough for it to be really relaxing. I made my own loom (out of 4 lengths of wood and a bunch of nails), which saved me around £30, and ordered a bunch of yarn and a tapestry needle from Hobbycraft (for not a lot of money) and I was away! I used this tutorial for my first go and found it super easy to follow!

3. Reading - Now, I know what you're thinking - 'Laura, everybody knows that reading is relaxing'. I know, but recently I've been so caught up in reading school books that I kind of forgot that reading can be fun. So I've spent a lot of time this past month or so reading for fun again and, although I'm a little late to the party, I've been loving Amy Poehler's book.

4. Photo albums - Technology has it's pros and it's cons, and a definite con for me is the fact that physical photos are such a rarity these days. I've been using Lalalab for a while now, which is an app on my phone that allows me to print my photos and have them delivered to my door. I do this every few months and just select the highlights from my camera roll, and then put them all into a physical photo album. I love doing this and I also love going back to the album every now and then, just to remind myself of good times.

5. Podcasts - I've been so into podcasts recently, especially Jess Lively's (an episode of which actually inspired this post). I've just been loading up my iPod with them and listening to them whilst I'm weaving, colouring, driving, everywhere, and I feel like they really relax and, sort of, ground me. Jess has some amazing guests, but if you're interested in something different, I got really into the Serial podcast last summer, which is a crime investigation podcast.

So there you have it! If you have anymore recommendations for relaxing techniques, leave them in the comments below.

Now, go forth and relax.