Patterns

I've been thinking about a few other topics to post about and reviewing previous entries has me scratching my head. Alot of my entries are about food which tells me one of three things.
a.)I blog when I'm hungry--I heard thats dangerous to your health.
b.)I blog about what is my greatest spending weakness.
c.)I blog about my greatest spending weakness when I'm hungry thus making me want to eat more and spend more money.

Either way, its great to analyze and figure out where your head is at. Its not fun to think about money, worry about money, dream about money, but at least you know that you'll make conscious decisions about how your spending your money... even if they aren't always good conscious decisions.

My post today is going to dwell on just relaxing. Taking a day, hour, moment for yourself to fully emerge yourself in the essence of you. And in sticking with tradition, do it for next to nothing!

The Bath
This is your domain for the next 45 minutes to an hour. Gather your supplies, your soothing music, a good book and really just get away from it all. You can pick up some great smelling bubble bath from your local dollar store and some cheap scented candles there too. BUT test both before you enter into your sheltered oasis, because there'd be nothing worse than having your candle smell like feet as you're trying to dulge into the Wonderful World of Oz. Let the bath water get steaming hot, but don't get in just yet, lest you scald your skin. The steam will fill your bathroom and really set the tone.

The key to relaxing in the bathroom is to leave the outside world outside the door. Pick a good time when your husband/wife/kids/boss/creepy next door neighbor/or anyone else is unlikely to bust in. And for sanity's sake leave your cell phone in your purse... in your car... parked two houses down. This is you time. You time. YOU TIME.

The Morning Jog
This great relaxation tool is free and serves three ends. Relax. Get fit. Save money. All you need is a decent pair of running shoes (or a stick depending on where in El Paso you live) and a glass of water waiting for you when you get home. An added accessory is an MP3 player of sorts. While iPods are cool and trendy they aren't the only MP3 player, shop around and get the best bang for your buck. Then get some decent headphones that will actually stay on your ears as you're running amok in your neighborhood. But thats highly unnecessary, you generally just need you and the open road, or if you're jogging early in the morning before the sun is out a reflective vest will be a necessity.

Jogging releases something into your body that reacts with something else causing something to happen and makes you feel relaxed. It doesn't matter what all that mojo-jojo in the middle is just grasp the key concept: Jogging....makes you feel relaxed.

Clean
While cleaning is generally unfun, it is necessary, and again serves multiple purposes. Pick a day to clean something by yourself: a closet, a cupboard, a portion of the garage. The goal is to pick a part of your home that doesn't get sorted out as often as other portions so halfway through cleaning you'll discover a few forgotten keepsakes and nostalgia will set in and you'll get carried away looking at everything you've found and want to find more... okay so this is actually the anti-clean method, but you'll have sufficiently relaxed... and created a big enough mess to get you stressed out again.

Get a Hobby
A cheap hobby. Knitting, crocheting, reading, sewing, cooking, running, walking, pickup-sports, walking your pet, coaching/referring, visiting your local library, writing, playing a musical instrument, painting, drawing, yoga, meditation, baking, astronomy, kite flying, origami... you get the picture and doing a quick search on any of these topics will produce how to do it for cheap. Hobbies are fun, they're relaxing and they're great ways of finding out who you are.

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