<ul>
<li>Meditation practices can help you relax and focus your energy on your body and breath.</li>
<li>A walk outside can calm your mind and body and help you further into a state of relaxation.</li>
</ul>

Meditation and nature

Use deep breathing exercises to relax your body:
<ul>
<li>Sit somewhere comfortable with a straight back</li>
<li>Close your eyes and begin breathing through your nose</li>
<li>Breathe in for a count of two.</li>
<li>Hold your breath for a count of one</li>
<li>Breathe out through your mouth for a count of four. The key is to exhale longer than you inhale.</li>
<li>Hold your breath for one second and then repeat.</li>
</ul>

Deep breathing exercises

If you have ever gotten in bed but your mind race with all the unfinished tasks, to-dos, and scenarios you replay in your mind, then you will know the importance of relaxing your mind.
To relax your mind, close any open loops and follow a 'shut down' routine.
<ul>
<li>Open loops are all the tasks that you deem so important that you want to hold on to them.</li>
<li>Anticipatory stress. Another is the feeling that you constantly need to be on stand-by, such as responding to messages.</li>
</ul>

The racing mind

Eye strain is a common symptom of too much time on a screen. It can lead to headaches, tense shoulders and back, and potentially blurred vision.
A simple exercise to help with eye-strain: After every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

The 20-20-20 technique for eye strain

<ul>
<li>Have a conversation with your boss on expectations and boundaries. Be open about when you're available and when not.</li>
<li>Keep your phone in another room to resist the urge to check it.</li>
<li>Remove work apps from your phone or home devise to create a distinction between phone (personal) and computer (work time.)</li>
<li>Change your email signature that states how long you usually take to respond.</li>
<li>Use if/then statements to reduce the need to keep working. (If I get an email notification at 5 pm, then I will ....)</li>
</ul>

How to relax your expectations

This popular technique systematically relaxes your muscle groups one at a time.
<ul>
<li>Lie down and stretch out.</li>
<li>Breathe in and tense the first muscle group, for example, your hands. Tense hard, but not to the point of pain. Hold for 4-10 seconds.</li>
<li>Exhale and relax the muscle group all at once.</li>
<li>Relax for 10-20 seconds.</li>
<li>Move on to the next muscle group. Work through your whole body in this way.</li>
<li>When you're done, count backwards from 5 to bring your focus back to the present.</li>
</ul>

Progressive muscle relaxation technique

The better you get at resting, the more energy and creativity you bring to your work.
Proper rest is not just a passive rest. Real rest that leaves you energized and inspired involves three essential elements:
<ol>
<li>Relaxing your mind</li>
<li>Relaxing your body</li>
<li>Relaxing your expectations.</li>
</ol>

Work and rest are partners

A master list can help you relax your mind. A master list is a document where you write down every task, email, to-do, and idea. For each item, write down a concrete next step, set a deadline, and categorise them as either working on now, waiting for someone else, or another time.
To truly relax your mind:
<ul>
<li>Record your progress in hours worked and tasks completed.</li>
<li>Glance at the day or week ahead to ensure there isn't anything you're forgetting about.</li>
<li>Acknowledge the day is over.</li>
</ul>

How to relax your racing mind

Work and rest aren’t competitors. They’re partners. So why do so few of us really know how to relax and recharge at the end of the day?

How to relax your expectations

Similar ideas to How to relax your expectations

Technology controls you

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