After a long day at work, I commute home, put the kids to bed, eat dinner and do the washing up. Finally, at about 9 pm, I sit down with my wife and switch on that most glorious of domestic appliances, the television. It pains me to admit it, but I have been looking forward to this for hours.
All of us deserve some time to relax. It makes us feel happy and is the natural antidote to fatigue. There is also mounting evidence that continuously high levels of stress lead to chronic inflammation, which is terrible for our physical and mental health. But is watching the box the best I can do?
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At least I can console myself that I am not alone. When journalist Claudia Hammond and Gemma Lewis at University College London what they do to relax, watching television was among the top 10 activities. And, as Hammond says in her book The Art of Rest, while some see it as 鈥渕indless鈥�, it is often a shared activity and so arguably less mindless than solitary forms of relaxation. The survey also found that 68 per cent of people wanted more rest. I feel likewise and wonder whether that is partly because my second favourite relaxation activity might not actually be helping.
Come and see Claudia Hammond talk about The Art of Rest at
鈥淩unning obviously isn鈥檛 restful for my body so does it count as relaxation?鈥�
Running might not be restful for my body, but it clears my mind like nothing else. I ask clinical psychiatrist Patricia Gerbarg at New York Medical College whether that counts. She suggests that I think about relaxation in terms of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Both are involved in unconscious actions, but the sympathetic nervous system ramps up the fight-or-flight response, generating damaging particles called free radicals. The parasympathetic system kicks in when you relax, giving your body a chance to recover.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e jogging you don鈥檛 feel in danger,鈥� says Gerbarg. This means you tap out of the sympathetic system. 鈥淎lso, people often jog out in nature and there鈥檚 something about being in the natural world that is restful,鈥� she says. On top of that, exercise produces feel-good chemicals called endorphins.
Nevertheless, there are times when I feel in need of stress relief but don鈥檛 have time to jog or watch TV. What I need is a sort of micro-relaxation. Would mindfulness fit the bill? There is evidence that it , part of the brain involved in the fight-or-flight response. At its simplest it involves merely stopping what you are doing and paying attention to your thoughts and environment.
developed by in Philadelphia reveals that I am indeed 鈥渕oderately mindful鈥�. Here is a skill I can consciously cultivate to relax at any time of day. I try waiting for the bus mindfully, focusing on the details of what I see, hear, smell and feel. I find it calming 鈥� and frustrating. If I really want to crack relaxation, I鈥檒l have to work a bit harder.
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