What do you like to do to relax?

[gotwood49]

For some reason, at the age of (almost) 55, I re-discovered, just today, one of life's most simple pleasures...a nice, hot, soaking bath!

My daughter was on the computer when I got home, so I decided to try something I hadn't done in a while. I grabbed a hot rod magazine, brought along what was left of a large Chick-fil-A sweet tea (another of life's pleasures) and drew a steaming, huge tub of water. I threw some mango something-or-other that my wife had in there, made lots of bubbles, and proceeded to immerse myself.
Now, I'm a shower guy. Five minutes, in and out (unless something needs a LOT of washing...that can take a lot more time!) Generally, tho...quick. Like I do most things, anymore...
This time, I thought, I'll take my time. Relax. Even, think! So I forced myself to unwind.
Immediately, I felt better. I lay there, sweat running off my forehead, with only my knees and face (and the end of something else!) sticking out, and tried to read. (That didn't work...I wanted to fall asleep immediately...)
Once I could take no more, I ran the shower, washed my hair with some Sergeant's Cat Shampoo (it was all I could find) and I was out, feeling like a new person.
Of course, now I'm watching the aquarium with an intensity I've never had!

Would you like to write about the things you like to do to relax? I think we all could benefit from other's ideas...

 

[wildsweetone]

It sounds like your bath was great, gotwood.

I have a special treat I give myself a couple of times each week...

I put some slow low music on, light the oil burner, lay on the bed and massage my body with almond oil as a base and ylang ylang and bergamot drops.

I begin at my feet and work my way upwards, taking something like half an hour leaving the inevitable until the last moment.

I don't know why I don't do it every single day, it would be a special treat each time, I know.

It's beautiful, and a very loving gift to myself.

 

[gotwood49]

It's beautiful, and a very loving gift to myself.

Wow, that sounds great, wildsweetone. What the heck is ylang ylang, and how do I get some?

In this holiday season, sometimes the best gifts are those we give to ourselves.

Enjoy!

 

[nikkijames]

I love to put on some good music and put the headphones on and just lay on the living room floor with the lights out and maybe a candle burning and listen to the harmonies and the actual words of the songs. You may not realize how many times you listen to a song, but never really hear what they are saying.

Something simple.. but I love music

 

[cantdog]

Really listening, in the dark, to a familiar piece of music is always intense. Kind of Blue (Miles) was incredible that way, and so was Radiohead.

I fell asleep to Bobby Dylan's Desire album. I kept waking again, over and over, to the sensation of bullets going through me. There's a lot of shooting in that one. I hadn't twigged to it until then.

 

[Guest]

god youll laugh
but
i knit or make stained glass... sometimes play the hammered dulcimer, though its been a few months

summer time and youll find me on the dock, looking up at the stars at night or the horizon during the day. thats my place, my special time. no need for music made by man when the loons are lulling or wind is blowing.

 

[Bridget69]

I relax by reading, watching a movie and of course, masturbating,

 

[Guest]

I relax by reading, watching a movie and of course, masturbating,

masturbating?!

you'll go blind!...mark it!
v~
(of hairy palm variety)

 

[shereads]

Bubble bath + trashy paperback novel.

 

[cantdog]

I didn't say the music thing was relaxing, though. I don't count it that way. For me, it's the lake and the woods, I suppose. And other things less printable.

 

[gotwood49]

...somehow I knew this thread wouldn't stay pure for long!

That's okay...whatever makes you relax. Sometimes I think the most relaxing place in the universe is my wife's belly, when I lay my head on it after a long, unfettered love-making session.

...then it gurgles, and we both crack up with laughter!!!

Gotta go for the night...have fun with this one, okay?

 

[cantdog]

Hey, when you have the brain cells to spare...

 

[Guest]

Nothing so peaceful as a gondola ride for me (in Venice, Italy, not So. Calif. or Las Vegas). Only do it once a year at most.

Perdita

 

[shereads]

I hadn't thought about travel as relaxing, or music, because both are sources of emotional highs. Even relaxing moments in someplace I've longed to be are too precious to be considered relaxing. I'm so conscious of trying to absorb the experience and not waste it. I think if I were in a gondola in Venice I'd look relaxed, but inside I'd be hopping up and down and clapping my hands with glee.

I can remember a particular travel moment where I was aware of stress disappearing, all at once, as if a bottle had been tipped over.

I'd been traveling all day, and my nerves were frazzled in the way that only a series of connecting flights at large airports can frazzle them. Finally, I was alone at a tiny mountain airport someplace in Colorado, where they closed the whole place after the 4:30 arrival from Denver.

While I waited for my ride, slightly delayed, half a dozen people asked if I needed a lift someplace. Most places, I'd have been nervous as hell being left alone on the front steps of a closed business and approached by strangers, but there wasn't anything threatening about that place or those people. Even when everyone left, including the lady from the rental car desk who locked up for the night. I put on an extra sweater and waved goodbye to the last car out of the parking lot, and spent half an hour enjoying absolute silence. No distant drone of traffic. Nothing.

The air was scented with pine and the clean sharp scent that precedes a snowfall. A bird started singing at dusk. Just one bird, no answering call, and it was easy to imagine that it kept singing because it had me for an audience. I almost regretted it when my ride finally got there. I could have slept on those concrete steps.

 

[Diariest]

Re:

Take a nice hot bath, and reading a nice erotic book.