How do you relax and de-stress? It’s an important question, especially if you have a stressful job, full schedule, tense body, or busy mind.
When I was in my mid-20s, a naturopath asked me how I managed stress. At the time, I was such a workaholic that the question didn’t make sense to me. Managing stress wasn’t even on my radar. I remember thinking: What’s your question?… What do you mean, manage stress? Don’t you just suck it up and deal with it and keep going?
Around the same time, I had the opportunity to attend a women’s initiative event and listen to the answers the panel of corporate executives provided about how they relax and decompress from work. The most tangible advice that came out of that? “Have a drink after work.” The rest of them had a similar approach to mine – namely to avoid dealing with it.
For me, part of that avoidance was not knowing what to do, but the larger part was not feeling like I had the time. I was under the impression that anything not directly related to advancing my career was a distraction and ultimately a luxury, not a necessity.
In the years since, I’ve discovered how wrong I was. When we don’t take care of ourselves, we aren’t any good to anyone. Self-care helps us build both resilience to stress and a solid foundation for self-love.
The practice that helped me learn to relax is called yoga nidra. Yoga nidra means yogic sleep. It’s a deep, conscious relaxation technique done lying down on your back that brings the body and mind into a state of deep relaxation and expanded awareness. I took a course on how to teach it a few years ago, and use a mini version of it during relaxation in my Kundalini yoga classes.
Just about every week, someone tells me how awesome it is. So I decided to record it.
I’m excited to tell you that the recording is now available. It’s called Relax, Rest & Rejuvenate and you can listen to it on Insight Timer, the top free meditation app on the Android and iOS stores.
Plus, it’s only 8 minutes long, so even if you’re busy, you can fit it in. And it intentionally has no ending bell so that you can use it for anything from taking a few minutes out of your day to getting a good night’s sleep.
If you’ve been feeling stressed out, wondering how to find the time to relax, or going to bed completely wired, take this as a sign from the universe and check it out.
This post was originally published on ailikuutan.com. You can find the recording on Insight Timer by searching for “Aili Kuutan” or “Relax, Rest & Rejuvenate.”